ive and urban areas oar socialist, though of course there are many exceptions, which will be discussed further later on.
             The major three ideologies that are considered the most widely held and represent the most people are liberalism, conservatism and socialism. Liberalism is the broadest of all ideologies; the modern form of liberalism stands for the protection of the individual and the individual's rights. It advocates freedom of speech, freedom of movement and capitalism. Really these values are shared by all the ideologies of the west and 'any account of political ideology must start with liberalism' Originally, liberalism came to prominence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries after the Enlightenment of the French Revolution, as a reaction against the elites who were in virtually total control of the country. A newly rich middle class soon emerged from the industrial revolution and soon they demanded an end to the feudal system of government, they wished for a modernising, some would say revolutionary approach, to the way the country was run. They called for constitutional reform and a limit to the absolutist powers of the monarch which they saw as heavily biased towards the land owning elites. They also opposed the way that the church had such a monopoly over people's lives and called for a state where people had religious freedom. Their future ambitions were of a representative democracy. In Britain, this led to the establishment of one of the first liberal parties, the Whigs. The Whigs battled with the Tories (now known as the Conservatives) in order to reform the system. The Whigs capitalised on the demise of the Tories and gained power and in 1932 passed the Great Reform Act. This gave the middle classes the vote and modernised the system of voting. This was a defining moment for liberalism; the force for change had finally been recognised after centuries of elitist conservative rule and develo...