# Saint-Simon Foundation

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The '''Saint-Simon Foundation''' ({{langx|fr|Fondation Saint-Simon}}) was a French [think tank](/source/think_tank) that was created in 1982 and brought together public intellectuals, [journalists](/source/Journalist), senior civil servants, business leaders, trade unionists, and academics.<ref>James G. McGann. ''Think Tanks and Civil Societies: Catalysts for Ideas and Action''. Transaction Publishers, 2002. P166.</ref><ref>A. T. Lane. ''Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders, Volume 1''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. P467.</ref> It terminated its activity in 1999, largely because its co-founder [Pierre Rosanvallon](/source/Pierre_Rosanvallon) decided to move on to other projects.<ref name=Rosanvallon>{{cite web |website=Le Monde |title=La Fondation Saint-Simon, une histoire accomplie |author=Pierre Rosanvallon |date={{date|1999/06/23}} |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1999/06/23/la-fondation-saint-simon-une-histoire-accomplie_3580639_1819218.html}}</ref>

==Creation and name==

The Saint-Simon Foundation was created in 1982 by a group of business figures and public intellectuals centered on industrialist [Roger Fauroux](/source/Roger_Fauroux), historian [François Furet](/source/Fran%C3%A7ois_Furet), maverick essayist [Alain Minc](/source/Alain_Minc), and sociologist [Pierre Rosanvallon](/source/Pierre_Rosanvallon), with inspiration from [French Resistance](/source/French_Resistance) hero and journalist [Philippe Viannay](/source/Philippe_Viannay).<ref name=Favard>{{cite web |author=Émile Favard |website=Les Échos |date={{date|1997/04/04}} |title=Saint-Simon, brillez pour nous ! Un club élitiste et producteur d'idées |url=https://www.lesechos.fr/1997/04/saint-simon-brillez-pour-nous-un-club-elitiste-et-producteur-didees-1045924}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |title=La Fondation Saint-Simon, les habits de gauche du néolibéralisme |author=Erwan Seznec |book-title=Histoire secrète du patronat de 1945 à nos jours |editor1=Benoît Collombat |editor2=David Servenay |date=2014 |pages=369–375 |url=https://www.cairn.info/histoire-secrete-du-patronat-de-1945-a-nos-jours--9782707178930-page-369.htm}}</ref> Also involved at the creation were historians [Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie](/source/Emmanuel_Le_Roy_Ladurie) and [Pierre Nora](/source/Pierre_Nora) as well as civil servant and businessman [Simon Nora](/source/Simon_Nora).<ref name=Bonelli>{{cite web |website=Le Monde Diplomatique |date=September 1998 |title=Enquête sur la Fondation Saint-Simon : Les architectes du social-libéralisme |author=Laurent Bonelli |url=https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1998/09/LAURENT/4054}}</ref>

Rosanvallon argued that the impulse for the foundation's creation came in the wake of the [1981 French presidential election](/source/1981_French_presidential_election) and the victory of Socialist [François Mitterrand](/source/Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand). Its aim was to create a social exchange network that would be independent from existing political clubs and university institutions.<ref name=Rosanvallon/> The foundation broadly supported [democracy](/source/democracy) and [economic liberalism](/source/economic_liberalism), and aimed to create bridges between Universities, business and public administration. [Pierre Nora](/source/Pierre_Nora) defined it as an "encounter between people who had money with people who had ideas" (''« la rencontre de gens qui avaient des moyens avec des gens qui avaient des idées »'').{{cn|date=May 2022}}

The foundation's name intentionally maintained the ambiguity as to which of two celebrated French figures named Saint-Simon it paid tribute to: memorialist [Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon](/source/Louis_de_Rouvroy%2C_duc_de_Saint-Simon) (1675-1755), or his distant relative social theorist [Henri de Saint-Simon](/source/Henri_de_Saint-Simon) (1760-1825). According to Minc, that idea was suggested by Le Roy Ladurie.<ref>{{cite book |title=Voyage au centre du "système" |author=Alain Minc |publisher=Grasset |location=Paris |date=2019 }}</ref>

==Activity and criticism==

The Saint-Simon Foundation was located in Paris at 91 bis, rue du Cherche-Midi.<ref>{{cite web |website=Le Monde |title=Séminaire : la France et sa justice |date={{date|1989/03/03}} |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1989/03/03/seminaire-la-france-et-sa-justice_4111967_1819218.html}}</ref> It published numerous memos and studies. In the 1990s, it was increasingly the target of [criticism](/source/criticism) from the left, alleging an excessive and somehow covert influence on [French politics](/source/French_politics). It was widely viewed as emblematic of a form of French mainstream thought, which Minc lauded as the "circle of reason" ({{langx|fr|cercle de la raison}}) and critics dismissed as the "only [admissible] thought" ({{langx|fr|[pensée unique](/source/pens%C3%A9e_unique)}}).{{cn|date=May 2022}}

The Saint-Simon Foundation was a member of [The Hague Club](/source/The_Hague_Club) international network of [think tank](/source/think_tank)s.<ref>[http://hagueclub.org/ The Hague Club] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930082058/http://hagueclub.org/ |date=2007-09-30 }} {{in lang|en}}</ref> After it dissolved in 1999, many of its former members joined ''[Le Siècle](/source/Le_Si%C3%A8cle_(think_tank))''.<ref name="windle">{{cite book|last1=Windle|first1=Joel A.|title=Making Sense of School Choice: Politics, Policies, and Practice under Conditions of Cultural Diversity|date=2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781137483539|page=123|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=goIYDAAAQBAJ|accessdate=27 January 2018}}</ref>

==Membership==

*President: [François Furet](/source/Fran%C3%A7ois_Furet), then [Roger Fauroux](/source/Roger_Fauroux) 
*Secretary: [Pierre Rosanvallon](/source/Pierre_Rosanvallon)
*Treasurer: [Alain Minc](/source/Alain_Minc)
*Other board members: [Jean-Claude Casanova](/source/Jean-Claude_Casanova), [Jean Peyrelevade](/source/Jean_Peyrelevade), {{ill|Yves Sabouret|fr}}{{cn|date=May 2022}}

In the late 1990s, the foundation's membership was slightly above a hundred, of which about 85 percent were men.<ref name=Favard/> In addition to the names cited above, they included:<ref name=Favard/><ref name=Bonelli/>
* senior current or former civil servants: e.g. [Martine Aubry](/source/Martine_Aubry), {{ill|François Bloch-Lainé|fr}}, [Nicolas Dufourcq](/source/Nicolas_Dufourcq), [Laurence Engel](/source/Laurence_Engel), {{ill|Jean-Baptiste de Foucauld|fr}}, {{ill|Antoine Garapon|fr}}, [Frédéric Lavenir](/source/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Lavenir), {{ill|Jacques Rigaud|fr|Jacques Rigaud (haut fonctionnaire)}}
* CEOs and businesspeople: e.g. [Jean-Louis Beffa](/source/Jean-Louis_Beffa), [José Bidegain](/source/Jos%C3%A9_Bidegain), [Christian Blanc](/source/Christian_Blanc), [Michel Bon](/source/Michel_Bon), [Marin Karmitz](/source/Marin_Karmitz), [Jean-Luc Lagardère](/source/Jean-Luc_Lagard%C3%A8re), [Francis Mer](/source/Francis_Mer), {{ill|Antoine Riboud|fr}}
* trade union leaders: e.g. [Edmond Maire](/source/Edmond_Maire), [Nicole Notat](/source/Nicole_Notat)
* journalists: e.g. [Jean Boissonnat](/source/Jean_Boissonnat), [Jean Daniel](/source/Jean_Daniel), [Jean-Pierre Elkabbach](/source/Jean-Pierre_Elkabbach), [Franz-Olivier Giesbert](/source/Franz-Olivier_Giesbert), [Laurent Joffrin](/source/Laurent_Joffrin), [Serge July](/source/Serge_July), [Christine Ockrent](/source/Christine_Ockrent), [Anne Sinclair](/source/Anne_Sinclair)
* academics and public intellectuals: e.g. [Daniel Cohen](/source/Daniel_Cohen_(economist)), [Luc Ferry](/source/Luc_Ferry), [Jean-Paul Fitoussi](/source/Jean-Paul_Fitoussi), {{ill|Georges Kiejman|fr}}, [Marie Mendras](/source/Marie_Mendras), [Edgar Morin](/source/Edgar_Morin), {{ill|Irène Théry|fr}}, [Alain Touraine](/source/Alain_Touraine)

==See also==
* [Club de l'Entresol](/source/Club_de_l'Entresol)

==Notes==
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{{Authority control}}

Category:Political and economic think tanks based in France
Category:Political and economic research foundations

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Saint-Simon Foundation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Simon_Foundation) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Simon_Foundation?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.