Saint-Simon Foundation

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 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 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.