Title:
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A study in educational development and civic pride in the city of Worcester during the 19th century
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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
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