𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘦-𝘏𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘪 𝘥𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵-𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘯 (1760-1825)

Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon was a French aristocrat-turned-social theorist. He had quite an interesting life: born into nobility, fought in the American Revolution, speculated and lost a fortune during the French Revolution… and ended his life in poverty, convinced he had uncovered something essential about how society should work.

His core idea was that society functions like an organized machine, and its performance depends on how well its parts are aligned. He thought it was inevitable that the world would change from being defined by birthright, hierarchy, and tradition, with power disconnected from real economic contribution, and Idling classes living off productive ones, to a world driven by science, industry, and coordination, with merit-based leadership by engineers, scientists, and managers, and a broad productive class consisting of anyone creating value (he included entrepreneurs, bankers, and creators in this category.)

His most provocative distinction was Producers vs. Idlers. While producers contribute to society’s functioning, idlers extract without contributing. He was blunt about it: a society dominated by idlers becomes both inefficient and unjust.

Saint-Simon argued that politics should organise production. He anticipated the idea of replacing the government of persons with the administration of things. This is also where it gets complicated, because he didn’t imagine a flat, egalitarian system, but a system with strong hierarchies, decision-making concentrated among technical and scientific elites, and a highly coordinated (some would say overly controlled) society. Critics later called parts of this vision authoritarian.

Saint-Simon influenced everything from early socialism to modern economics, sociology, and even thinkers like John Stuart Mill, Marx, and Thorstein Veblen.
But more importanly, he asked a question that still applies today: 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥? Or are we still operating in a so-called 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥 where structures lag behind reality?

His final idea might be the simplest and most enduring:
𝘈 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘷𝘶𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥.

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Strategic Insights of the book "La physiologie sociale":

* The Power of Credit: Saint-Simon identifies bankers as essential political agents because they possess the "pécuniaire" (financial) force to compel the government to organize according to industrial interests.
* The Failure of 1789: The French Revolution failed to terminate because it was led by legalists and metaphysicians who focused on the "rights of man" (abstractions) rather than the "organization of industry" (positive facts).
* Legal Means of Change: Saint-Simon explicitly rejects insurrection, noting that it destroys the very industrial property that producers need. Instead, he advocates for the legal transition of power through the control of the budget.
* Internationalism: The industrial system is essentially pacifically and globally oriented. Producers across nations (especially France and England) have more in common with each other than with the "parasites" of their own nations.

Source: 

Saint-Simon, Claude-Henri de (1965 [1803-1825]), La physiologie sociale - Œuvres choisies par Georges Gurvitch, Paris: Presses universitaires de
France, 1965, 160 pages. Collection: Bibliothèque de sociologie contemporaine.