The revolutions that spread across Europe in 1848 provided not only independent nations freed from empires but new democracies freed from authoritarian systems. Before the rise of Marx and his articulation of communism, there was a specific type of socialism that increased the democratic principle throughout the economy. This was an active attempt to establish cooperatives as the main economic unit in the national economy, avoiding direct government ownership. It was through the democratic process of the government that economic democracy was made possible.