The worker at the heart of the analysis: the Saint- Simonian approach to political economy
Résumé
Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Count of Saint-Simon 1 (1760-1825), developed for a time thinking close to Jean-Baptiste Say in political economic matters. Say was in effect the most renowned French economist during the first half of the nineteenth century and Saint-Simon considered him as the scholar to have led the most useful work in this discipline. 2 He took from Say the fundamental concepts of industry, production and utility (Saint-Simon 2012, vol. 2: 1774; vol. 4: 3233). However, Saint-Simon did not follow Say in his differentiation between political economy and politics (ibid.: vol. 2: 1496-8, 1783; vol. 3: 2016-17). He also distanced himself from the liberalism advocated by the author of A Treatise on Political Economy and developed a conception of well-being which was not reduced to the wealth of nations.