Aristocrats and officers are reliably conservative or reactionary, the more radical cousin of conservatives, detailed below. Most of the poor strata are conservative-oriented at first, though this usually changes with time. This is ideology most prevalent in the world at the start of the game. Expect these parties to sometimes uphold more liberal principles such as free trade, limited citizenship, pluralism, and even laissez faire. In a more liberal nation like Britain or America, conservatives may simply be defending the way things have always been, or perhaps defending the historic role of the state against new liberal ideas of freedom. In an absolute monarchy, the conservatives are likely more 'conservative', defending the crown and its values, likely leaning towards moralism, jingoism, residency, state capitalism, and protectionism.

This means different things for different societies. Conservatives upheld tradition above all else, being reluctant to enact any reform that would threaten the old ways. Conservative parties in the Victorian era were markedly different from today's conception of conservative (at least the Anglo-American conception). Conservatives are the old guard, the arbiters of the status quo, the defenders of tradition and enemies of change. Nonetheless, a broad understanding of the ideological headwaters behind these parties is useful for a player to understand.Ĭonservatives value order as a social end. As in reality, the specifics of each country's unique situation influence the stances taken by the parties.

These ideologies represent the core of a broader political movement, and as such the player can expect there to be no small degree of variation amongst parties of similar or even identical nominal ideological affiliation.

There are seven political ideologies in Victoria 2, each of which is expressed in hundreds of individual parties unique to each playable country.

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