St. Simon's Research On Industry-oriented Social Governance

The French Revolution in the late 18 th century triggered a continuous political crisis and social disintegration,bringing wide criticism to the doctrine of natural rights and the theory of social contract prevailing during the Enlightenment.Attention to the enlightenment political legal theory and reflection of the Great Revolution gave birth to social science in the crisis of social atomization in the post revolutionary era.As a pioneer of sociology of law,Saint-Simon's thought of social governance was formed under such background,and sought to reunite with industry the individuals of society.In order to clarify his system of social governance and extract the essence of his thoughts on the sociology of law,it's necessary to sort out and reconstruct his idea according to certain rules of threads.Thought of social governance of Saint-Simon is based on his unique methodology.However,due to failure to complete his works systematically in his life,his methodology is scattered in his works.We are about to sort out and reconstruct his scattered views on the principle of methodology,trying to outline the methodology in a logical way.For Saint-Simon,the essence of his methodology lies in the fact that everything is based on“positivism”,which originated from observation and empirical researches in natural science.Saint-Simon extends the methodological principle of“positivism” to social science,taking it as the foundation of the re-establishment of the social order.In addition,under influence of politicaleconomy,doctrine of Saint-Simon contains a unique methodology of class analysis,which means he mainly observed in an economical-social function perspective the division of social groups.In addition,division of social history stages also plays an important role.Through arrangement,induction and logical reasoning of human history,he proposed dualism of social development,namely,dualism-organic age and critical age,and proved these two ages emerged alternately,similar to “ideal type”,therefore any state of society could be taken into account in such scope.Based on such methodology,he observed the age he lived from the perspective of legal sociology.Under double influence of the industrial revolution and the French Revolution(which is called “Dual Revolution”),the feudal theological ties were broken,and the individual lost the tie of common emotions,but transformed ones like atoms.The critical era tended to the extreme,which was the key period into an organic era.In France like messy sands,a powerful class was called on to adjust and coordinate all kinds of social forces and lead people to build a new social order in line with the organic era.According to analysis of the growth of the industrial class in history based on the method of class analysis,Saint-Simon believed the power of the industrialists were gradually growing and they took hold of main social sources,on which other classes gradually dependent.Therefore,when building a new industrial system,the leading role of the industrial class should be played.Political economy is an important theoretical reference for social governance view of Saint-Simon.According to the principles of political economy elucidating from Smith and Say,he concluded an important scientific judgment that politics-law is a science concerning production.Only production of industry has the real meaning,increasing the wealth of society,so the whole set of social governance should be reorganized according to the purpose of industry and construct the tie of material production.Accordingly,in the spiritual field,in order to maintain and consolidate the industrial institution,Saint-Simon founded “New Christianity” as a new ideology and introduced it into social organizations,in order to make up for the lack of the general moral system of social groups after the collapse of the feudal theological system.As to various representative measures in the industrial society,there are three aspects:(1)for France,through education to strengthen the political confidence and class consciousness of the industrialists,through legislation to legitimize the power of them,and with the help of the king to truly enhance and consolidate the power of them in the real society;(2)to reform system of ownership of the old times,that is starting from inner relationship of ownership to separate rights of ownership and management,to improve efficiency of the use of productive materials,ensure income of the industrial class,increase wealth of France,and thus laying the foundation of the industrial social system;(3)in addition,in order to gatherpeople together at the spiritual level in cooperation with the industrial system,Saint-Simon publicized the spirit of fraternity,and the basic principle of “everyone should be treated as brothers”,guarded the material production activities of the industrial society,and improved the spirit and material life of the poor class.Generally speaking,Saint-Simon's thought still has reference significance in modern society.As a utopian socialist,he provides valuable reference for promoting the modernization of governance system and capacity in China.As a pioneer of sociology of law,he inspires us to observe society more comprehensively and combine law with political science and economics,to improve the theoretical system of socialist governance of law with Chinese characteristics.