Jacksonian V. Jeffersonian Democracy

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History 1301
June 29, 2011
Jeffersonian vs. Jacksonian Democracy
Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson were both President of the United States, so they are both iconic figures in United States history. There democracies Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracies had numerous amounts of similarities and a few differences as well(Jeffersonian vs. Jacksonian Democracy 1).
Jackson and Jefferson supported the common man and not the wealthy aristocrats. Their ideas of government were strongly in favor of both the “common man” and states’ rights. Also, they believed that the federal government should have completely no interaction in states’ rights but instead they should only have action in foreign affairs. Both men were against anything that would hurt the “common man” for example, the Bank of the United States in which Jackson states it as a “monster institution”. The other issue that Jackson and Jefferson saw eye to eye on was minorities. The democracies define the common man as white men but excluded Native Americans and blacks. They owned slaves and supported the Indian Removal Act of 1830(Jacksonian vs. Jeffersonian Democracy 1).
As similar as their democracies were they did have differences. Jefferson wasn’t as much of a man of the people compared to Jackson because during Jefferson’s election the popular vote didn’t weigh too heavily on that but did on the vote from the Electoral College. Jefferson kept the Bank of the United States in place while Andrew Jackson never renewed the charter for the bank. Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson believed in property requirements while Jackson’s democracy didn’t have property requirements (The Evolution of Democracy from Jefferson to Jackson). Also, Jackson wasn’t born into a rich family but Jefferson was(Jeffersonian vs Jacksonian Democracy 1).
Concluding, Jacksonian and Jeffersonian Democracy are about as similar two things like this could be. Their democracies have the building blocks of today’s government and shape...