modern history

Many groups used different methods to achieve a fairer society within industrialized countries. These groups were: The liberals, the democrats, the socialists, the Trade unions, the anarchists, the utopians, And the Marxists.

The liberal reformers struggled to free the individual. They wanted “laissez- fair” meaning ‘allow to do’. They urged the state should cease interfering in economic affairs. Liberals also wanted an end of the alliance of the throne and altar. As well as freedom of thought and expression. In many countries liberals regarded the Catholic Church with acute distrust.

Democracy resembled liberalism; However Democrats were more devoted to the ideal of equality of political and civil rights. Democrats believed that the power lay not in constitutional systems or in the representative parliamentary assemblies, but in the general will of the whole people. Democracy, even more then liberalism, was a central cause of change and revolution in the century after 18...