2025/05/05 by Teddy Paikin · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #European Political History Analysis #French Historical and Cultural Studies #Political Theory and Influence
paper · doi:10.1080/09672567.2025.2491317
openalex publication_date 2025/05/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
This paper advances a novel reading of the Saint-Simonian political economy of Michel Chevalier through the lens of the “developmental state”. It argues that Chevalier’s commitment to economic organisation and state intervention stemmed from his acute consciousness of French comparative economic backwardness and the need to construct an activist state capable of jumpstarting development through investment in transportation infrastructure and tariff reform. Inspired by American state intervention in railways, Chevalier outlined a political economy which ideologically accompanied the state-led process of economic development during the Second Empire. The paper also reflects on Chevalier’s relationship with the neomercantilist tradition.