ABSTRACT
The tendency of ideologies to focus on the apparent, rather than the real possibilities and choices posed by social change means that ideologies offer alternatives that are always more or less imaginary and infeasible. Ideologies thus tend to prevent elites and others who utilize them from concentrating on the real issues that arise from fundamental social change. The rapid social change that was taking place and the accidental geographic locations of organizations fostering different beliefs did not permit the reestablishment of a situation in which only one religious truth could be heard, even in local areas. Ideologies presumed that people were able to choose self-gov-ernment, universal democracy, or socialism as wholes. The nineteenth century's major ideological discussion and conflict centered on the refinement of liberalism as a political doctrine that promoted democracy on a universal basis. As an ideology, democracy focused on the apparent possibilities and choices opened up by these underlying economic and elite conditions.
