How Democratic was Jacksonian Democracy?

On the 4th of July is the day that The United States of America commemorates the remembrance of their independence day. On this date annually, they celebrate the day that they became free from the hands of their colonial rulers. This also is the day that the great leaders of the nation are remembered. Andrew Jackson is one of the great leaders who brought a massive face of transformation in the country. In his era, a lot of changes were witnesses both politically and in terms of development. This study focuses to peer into how the age of Andrew Jackson was democratic. In conventional terms the Jacksonian democracy.

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Jacksonian democracy was a movement that was activated by the activists to fight for the democratic rights of the ordinary man. This movement was led by the American President Andrew Jackson and his supporters. One of the main aim and objectives of the movement was to abolish the by the then common slave trade. It is during this period and his era of the presidency that through the Jacksonians democracy fights, that the slave trade was abolished. The fight against this was a success, though a tough one. A lot of blood was split resulting from the American Civil War of 1850 where the democratic rights of the common man were being fought for. This era of the former American president Andrew Jackson was entirely fighting for the rights and freedoms of the ordinary man. The revolution was referred to as the Jacksonian democracy(Gelman andKing, 78-90).

The fight for a multiparty system and the rights of the people to vote was also one of the implementations that the Jacksonian democracy fought for. This was known as the election by the common man where they could vote for the leader of their choice. Previously, there was a single political party where there was no voting for a preferred leader. This was known as the second party system where this was implemented in 1830s until 1854. This was a great change of democracy where the monopoly system of government was abolished. The citizens were able to have a broad range of leaders to select as per the qualities that they have. This contributed to the transformation of the nation. These are the democracy that the Jacksonian democracy movement promoted to the growth of the rights and freedom of the ordinary citizens (Formisano, 56-86).

This Jacksonian democracy leads to a lot of reforms like the citizens participating in the government activities like decision making and giving out recommendations on some issues. The changes in the state system include the public forums and mass areas where the leaders of the party took their time to listen to their citizens is such fora. This is some of the ways that this era promoted the democracy and the say of the common citizen in the nation. Through this Andrew Jackson, who was the leader was also able to change the banking system and abolish the monopoly systems that was in the banking. He fought for this as he claimed that the banks were cheating the common man, and he admitted hat he would fight for this (P Keefer, D Stasavage, 124-150).

From the above discussed democratic reforms, it is just to conclude that during this Jacksonian democracy era, a lot of transformations were brought that promotes the democratic rights of the ordinary man. The above named are the major reforms that were brought about from the era of Andrew Jacksons presidency and the revolution that he lead.

Reference list

Gelman, Andrew, and Gary King. "Enhancing Democracy Through Legislative Redistricting." American Political Science Review 88.03 (1994): 541-559.

Formisano, Ronald P. "Toward a Reorientation of Jacksonian Politics: A Review of the Literature, 1959-1975." The Journal of American History (1976): 42-65.

Keefer, Philip, and David Stasavage. "The limits of delegation: Veto players, central bank independence, and the credibility of monetary policy." American political science review 97.03 (2003): 407-423.