Jacksonian democracy

[ (jak-soh-nee-uhn) ]


A movement for more democracy in American government in the 1830s. Led by President Andrew Jackson, this movement championed greater rights for the common man and was opposed to any signs of aristocracy in the nation. Jacksonian democracy was aided by the strong spirit of equality among the people of the newer settlements in the South and West. It was also aided by the extension of the vote in eastern states to men without property; in the early days of the United States, many places had allowed only male property owners to vote. (Compare Jeffersonian democracy.)

Words Nearby Jacksonian democracy

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

How to use Jacksonian democracy in a sentence

  • This provision stood clear in the document; but judicial ingenuity had circumvented it in the age of Jacksonian democracy.

    History of the United States | Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard
  • In the Northwest territory, the old home of Jacksonian democracy, they overtopped agriculture.

    History of the United States | Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard
  • All this and his steady advocacy of Jacksonian democracy constituted him no paltry antagonist.

    Lincoln, the Politician | T. Aaron Levy
  • Crockett was a Southerner and, as has been stated, at first a friend of the Jacksonian democracy.

    The Way to the West | Emerson Hough