Saint-Simonianism

Saint-Simonianism was a French social, political, and religious movement inspired by Henri de Saint-Simon. It advocated industrial development, social organization by productive capacity, and better conditions for the working classes.

Henri de Saint-Simon: French social thinker who argued that industrial society should be organized around productive work and scientific knowledge. His writings supplied the movement’s central ideas and its name.
Industrialism: A social doctrine that treats industrial production and the people who organize it as foundations of modern society. Saint-Simonianism placed productive industry at the center of political and social life.
Prosper Enfantin: French engineer and Saint-Simonian leader who helped shape the movement into a religious community. His leadership gave Saint-Simonianism a more organized and explicitly religious form.
Canal du Rhône au Rhin: A French canal linking the Rhône and Rhine river systems, built in stages from the eighteenth century onward. Saint-Simonian engineers and advocates promoted large transport networks as engines of social progress.
Fourierism: A social theory by Charles Fourier proposing cooperative communities called phalansteries. Fourierism also sought social harmony but organized it through experimental communities rather than industrial hierarchy.
Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon: The aristocratic birth name of Henri de Saint-Simon, the French social thinker. This alternative form clarifies the thinker’s identity, but duplicates his commonly used name.
Productive class: Workers, farmers, entrepreneurs, and other people whose activity produces useful goods or services. Saint-Simonians favored this class over hereditary elites and groups they considered unproductive.
Amand Bazard: French political activist who helped lead the Saint-Simonian movement after Saint-Simon’s death. He developed the movement’s doctrine alongside Enfantin before their leadership split.
Suez Canal: An artificial waterway across Egypt connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. Saint-Simonian engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps led the company that built the canal.
Proudhonism: The political and economic ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, including mutualism and opposition to state authority. Proudhon’s suspicion of centralized authority conflicts with Saint-Simonian planning by experts.

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Avant-gardeRelated: Its followers helped extend the military metaphor of an advance guard to artists leading social change.