Jacksonian Democracy

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Andrew Jackson

The Jacksonian Democracy is a series of electoral law - and economic reforms with the office of Andrew Jackson took in 1829, its beginning and of great importance for the political history of the United States are.

The Jacksonian Democracy expanded the franchise - from landowning-only men - to all white men over the age of 21 and limited the influence of the federal government on the economy while federal agencies were restructured. Another goal was to strengthen the rights of the states compared to Washington, DC and the territorial expansion of the United States. One motive for the reforms was the predominant egalitarian mood in the United States during the increasing social stratification in the 1820s and 1830s , which aimed at the abolition of privileges for members of the federal government. Initial efforts in this direction had already appeared under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson . The economic policy content of the Jacksonian Democracy served its supporters to reject rapid economic change that they believed was negatively affecting their daily lives. Against this background, they distrusted the power of banks and an increasing entanglement in a market economy and a federal government that favored both of these developments. This corresponds to the hostility Jackson had towards the Second Bank of the United States . The historian Sean Wilentz names three interwoven guidelines as hallmarks of Jacksonian Democracy : a robust, constitutionally- oriented nationalism , which is curbed by restraint in the spending policy of the federal government , a deep-seated distrust of the power of concentrated capital and the absolute prioritization of the popular democratic will.

The American Indian policy of the Jacksonian Democracy was founded in its prioritization of the rights of the individual states and is an example of the harmful effects of this political program. By this time, the public's image of the Indians had changed compared to the tenure of Thomas Jefferson ; they were no longer seen as " noble savages ", but as barbarians who stood in the way of clearing the land. The southern states therefore pushed for these peoples to be expelled to areas west of the Mississippi . When the federal government's efforts to obtain treaties with the Indians and the Indian Removal Act of 1830 did not go far enough, they took matters into their own hands. With pressure and cunning they drove the peoples out of their country. When in 1832 the United States Supreme Court, under John Marshall, signaled that Georgia had illegally appropriated Cherokee land , Jackson did nothing to stop the state. On the other hand, he accorded the highest priority as President of the Union, as was shown in the nullification crisis of 1832/1833, when he made it clear in a declaration that he was prepared to enforce federal law in South Carolina against the nullification doctrine if necessary by force .

literature

  • Lee Benson: The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy: New York as a Test Case . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1961, ISBN 0-691-00572-9 .
  • William K. Bolt: Tariff Wars and the Politics of Jacksonian America. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville 2017, ISBN 978-0-8265-2138-5 .
  • Richard E. Ellis: The Union at Risk: Jacksonian Democracy, States' Rights and the Nullification Crisis . Oxford University Press, New York 1989, ISBN 978-0-19-534515-5 .
  • Joshua A. Lynn: Preserving the White Man's Republic: Jacksonian Democracy, Race, and the Transformation of American Conservatism. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville 2019, ISBN 978-0-8139-4250-6 .
  • Edward Pessen: Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics (Revised Edition). University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago 1978, ISBN 0-252-01237-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William K. Bolt: Jacksonian Democracy. In Andrew Robertson, Michael A. Morrison, William G. Shade, Robert Johnston, Robert Zieger, Thomas Langston, Richard Valelly: Encyclopedia of US Political History (Volume One) . CQ Press, Washington DC 2010, ISBN 978-0-87289-313-9 , pp. 192-198; here: pp. 192f., 196.
  2. ↑ Sean Wilentz : Andrew Jackson (= The American Presidents Series. Ed. By Arthur M. Schlesinger , Sean Wilentz. The 9th President). Times Books, New York City 2005, ISBN 978-0-8050-6925-9 , p. 112.
  3. ^ William K. Bolt: Jacksonian Democracy. In Andrew Robertson, Michael A. Morrison, William G. Shade, Robert Johnston, Robert Zieger, Thomas Langston, Richard Valelly: Encyclopedia of US Political History (Volume One) . CQ Press, Washington DC 2010, ISBN 978-0-87289-313-9 , pp. 192-198; here: p. 196f.