Perhaps the most wide-ranging research into the political culture of democracy was that undertaken by Almond and Verba, and published in 1963. Predominant among its themes were a concern with civic virtue and its consequences for democratic states, and an attempt to identify the kind of community life, social organisation and child development that fosters this civic virtue. These themes were explored by means of survey research. Almond and Verba saw the development of civic culture in Britain as a product of a series of encounters between modernization and traditionalism - encounters which were fierce enough to effect major change, but not so severe as to create disintegration or polarisation. Britain's ability to tolerate a greater measure of aristocratic, corporate and local autonomy than could contemporary continental states was attributed in part to its insular security and aristocracy in trade and commerce played their parts. In consequence, Britain entered the Industrial Revolution with a political culture among its elite which allowed rapid, substantial changes in social structure to be assimilated during the 18th and 19th Centuries, without severe repercussions. Aristocratic Whigs allied with nonconformist industialists and merchants to establish the principles of parliamentary supremacy and representation. But the toleration of religious diversity which was distantly anticipated by the break with Rome, and the emergence of a self-confident merchant class, together with the involvement of court