The Saint-Simon Foundation ( French : Fondation Saint-Simon ) was a French think tank that was created in 1982 and brought together public intellectuals, journalists , senior civil servants, business leaders, trade unionists, and academics. It terminated its activity in 1999, largely because its co-founder Pierre Rosanvallon decided to move on to other projects.
5-547: The Saint-Simon Foundation was created in 1982 by a group of business figures and public intellectuals centered on industrialist Roger Fauroux , historian François Furet , maverick essayist Alain Minc , and sociologist Pierre Rosanvallon , with inspiration from French Resistance hero and journalist Philippe Viannay . Also involved at the creation were historians Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie and Pierre Nora as well as civil servant and businessman Simon Nora . Rosanvallon argued that
10-418: The 1990s, it was increasingly the target of criticism from the left, alleging an excessive and somehow covert influence on French politics . It was widely viewed as emblematic of a form of French mainstream thought, which Minc lauded as the "circle of reason" ( French : cercle de la raison ) and critics dismissed as the "only [admissible] thought" ( French : pensée unique ). The Saint-Simon Foundation
15-476: 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 (1675-1755), or his distant relative social theorist Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825). According to Minc, that idea was suggested by Le Roy Ladurie. The Saint-Simon Foundation was located in Paris at 91 bis, rue du Cherche-Midi. It published numerous memos and studies. In
20-690: The impulse for the foundation's creation came in the wake of the 1981 French presidential election and the victory of Socialist François Mitterrand . Its aim was to create a social exchange network that would be independent from existing political clubs and university institutions. The foundation broadly supported democracy and economic liberalism , and aimed to create bridges between Universities, business and public administration. 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 » ). The foundation's name intentionally maintained
25-402: Was a member of The Hague Club international network of think tanks . After it dissolved in 1999, many of its former members joined Le Siècle . In the late 1990s, the foundation's membership was slightly above a hundred, of which about 85 percent were men. In addition to the names cited above, they included: Roger Fauroux Roger Fauroux (21 November 1926 – 16 July 2021)
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