Henri Saint-Simon and the Republican Idea

Theoretically, historically and personally, Saint-Simon inherits from the Enlightenment and the various political forms of the First Republic. However, he does not claim to be a republican. His project is often analysed as being based on an industrial or even managerial model applied to society as a whole, indifferent to political forms of government, and ultimately alien to the republican idea. However, a precise examination of his doctrine contradicts this interpretation, and sheds light on the discrepancies between his doctrine and notions usually attached to a republican conception of government: liberty, equality, fraternity, and popular sovereignty. Those republican notions are not rejected as such, but redefined and integrated into an economic.