Institut Montaigne


Founded in 2000, Institut Montaigne is a nonprofit, transpartisan think tank based in Paris, France. Institut Montaigne’s mission is to propose practical public policy recommendations to improve social cohesion, competitiveness and public spending in a variety of policy fields. Its work is based on international benchmarks and collaborations between experts from the French business community, academia, civil society and government.

Research

Institut Montaigne focuses on four main policy fields:
Institut Montaigne is also involved in promoting innovative democratic platforms. In 2011, the think tank led an ambitious research program under the supervision of Gilles Kepel on the suburban cities of Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil where the 2005 riots sparked. The findings were published in the book “Banlieue de la République”. This work was later completed by “Passion française”, a political essay based on a series of interviews conducted in the cities of Roubaix and Marseille to meet candidates of foreign origin who ran for the 2012 legislative elections.
Institut Montaigne feeds the public debate by providing accurate data and assessment tools. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Institut Montaigne forecasted the budgetary impact of the main candidates’ programs. A similar initiative was undertaken during the 2014 municipal campaign in France’s 10 largest cities, as well as for the 2015 regional campaign. During the 2017 presidential campaign, on top of quantitative analyses, it evaluated over 120 electoral program promises and proposals.
Institut Montaigne also developed the first serious game dedicated to public finances, allowing players to understand how budgetary and macroeconomic policies impact the French public deficit and the national debt.
Institut organizes political forums to which citizens are invited to draft new policies. For instance, in 2012, Institut Montaigne held a citizen’s conference on the French healthcare system. A representative panel of 25 participants was informed of the functioning of the healthcare system, its challenges and its issues. After a series of workshops, the panel released a report in which it stated its main policy proposals.

Activities

Institut Montaigne expresses concrete policy proposals to enhance both competitiveness and social cohesion. The ideas are conveyed through four types of publications:

Actions during the 2012 presidential campaign

In April 2012, the Montaigne Institute was criticized for doing disguised advertising for Nicolas Sarkozy, while the advertising of political parties is prohibited. Indeed, a proposal resulting from the advertising campaign carried out from March to April by the Montaigne institute was compared to certain remarks made by the president-candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, leading the CSA to investigate the file.
This proposal had already been formulated by the Montaigne Institute in 2006 in a study by Jacques Bichot.
Other proposals put forward during this campaign echo François Hollande's programs, such as those on priority in primary school, defended by the Montaigne Institute in its report Vaincre Failure in Primary School in 2010.
Following the intervention of the CSA, BFMTV, BFM Radio or even RMC cease broadcasting for the duration of the campaign of the spots of the Institut Montaigne in favor of Nicolas Sarkozy's proposals. The Montaigne Institute also quantified the measures proposed by the candidates for the presidential election, in partnership with the newspaper Les Échos.
The quality of this work has sometimes been disputed; for Médiapart "the ideological presuppositions, the absence of a guarantee on the impartiality of the calculations or the secret kept on the identity of the" encryptors "cast suspicion on this project".
During the campaign, La Chaîne européenne had Laurent Bigorgne, then director of the Montaigne Institute, as editorial writer for his political program Thèmes de campagne. This program, presented by Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, received, from March to June 2012, Pascal Lamy, Nicole Notat, Thierry Breton and Jacques Attali.

Actions during the 2017 presidential campaign edit source

The president of the institute, Laurent Bigorgne, contributes to Emmanuel Macron's campaign from April 2016.
In its analysis, carried out with the newspaper Les Échos, of the candidates' economic programs, the Montaigne Institute supports that of Emmanuel Macron and severely criticizes the left candidates Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Benoit Hamon.
The Institute subsequently exhibits a certain proximity to the government. Prime Minister Édouard Philippe goes in November 2018 to the lunch that the think tank organizes between member companies and political figures. Laurent Bigorgne was appointed in June 2018 member of the Public Action Committee 2022, installed by the Prime Minister to design the state reform project, then was invited to debate with Emmanuel Macron on March 22, 2019, with sixty-five other intellectuals, to deal with the yellow vests crisis. Gilles Babinet, the Institute's referent on the digital issue, was appointed by the government as vice-president of the National Digital Council in May 2018.

The Institut Montaigne, financial regulation, and the subject of public or private corruption

The institute details its work and firm positions in terms of financial regulation and against bribery on the French version of this entry.
The presence on the steering committee of Marwan Lahoud, a former Airbus executive cited by numerous publications as being at the center of a commission system, in the large-scale corruption scandal concerning Airbus., also raises the question of the Institut Montaigne's report on these questions.

Organisation

Board of directors

The Advisory Board provides guidance about the major social transformations; expresses its opinion about the work of the think tank; and develops partnerships and institutional relations in France and abroad.
Institut Montaigne brings together a number of experts who provide research, policy recommendations, and analyses on a full range of public policy issues, in particular on our .
Laurent Bigorgne has been the managing director of Institut Montaigne since 2011. 21 permanent members of staff work there.

Budget and financial resources

Institut Montaigne is a non-profit organization, depending on the French law of 1901. The annual budget of Institut Montaigne’s core is ca 4.3 million euros. More than 150 companies, of all sizes and all industries, contribute every year to its operation, each one of them representing less than 2% of the total budget. About 300 legal persons also support Institut Montaigne’s procedure. Their total support represents 1% of the operating budget of Institut Montaigne.
Members :