Although Saint-Simon began his career with more theoretical accounts of sciences, he became more and more interested of the day-to-day practices of French government. Indeed, many of his late writings were instructions for king and other influential persons on how government should be managed.
While in his earlier works Saint-Simon had mainly criticized nobles and priests, as idlers who did not take any part in the really beneficial work or industry, in later works he on occasion admitted that the two classes had served some purpose in the past. Christianity as such was of greatest importance for Saint-Simon, because it was a religion preaching altruism and condemning egoism, which he considered to be a force preventing the development of society. Even nobility had been of importance, because through Middle Ages European countries were in need of a soldier class defending the nation against hordes of barbarians.
Although Saint-Simon thus admitted a historical purpose for priesthood and nobility, he was also quite certain that time had passed these two classes. They did still cling to power, but now more due to their own egoistic desire to uphold their own interests. Saint-Simon went even so far as to suggest that nobles were a completely different race from the nation they governed - they were Frankish conquerors of Gallic people.
As a sort of dead end in development Saint-Simon considered metaphysicians and legists. He speaks more of legists or jurists, who were originally just people that nobles appointed to hold courts. Jurists were important, Saint-Simon concedes, in making the feudal justice system fairer. Yet, their final attempt, embodied by Maximilian Robespierre, was to base society on empty, general principles, just like metaphysics tried to derive knowledge out of abstract concepts.
The development of society, according to Saint, was based on the work of scientists and industrials, that is, people who worked for their living. An important agenda in Saint-Simon’s works was to note that Bourbon kings had traditionally endorsed these progressive ideals and battled the rebellious nobility. It was only the king Louis XIV and his successors who had turned their coat on this policy and favoured nobility
Saint-Simon spoke a lot about taking the revolution to its end. What he meant by this was not so much continuing revolution, but instead, creating something permanent and stable in place of old structures destroyed by revolution and philosophical criticism of Enlightenment. He was quite adamant that Napoleon had been just another dead end, because all he could do was to set up a new military nobility beside the old one. Indeed, Saint-Simon went even so far as to suggest that no standing army was required - such an army was required only for the purpose of conquest, which was something France should refrain from, and for defensive purposes only a small national guard was needed.
The actual details of the ideal government Saint-Simon envisioned are rather hazy. What is important for him is that idle nobles should be replaced by working industrials who are the true source of national wealth. Most importantly, these industrials should have a say on the national budget - they are used to handle financial issues and they are responsible for helping government with their taxes, so it’s only fair that they have a say on how the government funds are spent.
