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The saint-simonians are active between 1825 and 1832, when the sect is banned. However, saint-simonism stays influent at least until the end of the reign of Napoleon the third. The movement is structured around famous authors, some of them now recognised as economists, others as real thinkers of society. In this chapter we propose a rational reconstruction of the relation between institutions and development from a saint-simonian perspective. This approach offers two advantages. Firstly, it helps understanding the construction of the French model of capitalism in the nineteenth century, which persists nowadays, around a close connection between industry, banking, state and higher education schools (grandes écoles). Secondly, it throws light on development issues, since the saint-simonians had tried to implement their economic model also in French colonies, especially in Algeria. The chapter is organized as follows: after the introduction, in the second section the main saint-simonian economic principles are presented. In the third section, a saint-simonian institutional framework is given. The fourth section examines the impact of this framework on the analysis of development. Final remarks are presented in the last section.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-25354-1_9

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