Question

Describe the different ways that each of the new mass political parties, democrats and whigs, promoted the democratic ideals of liberty and equality among their constituencies.

Answer 1

The Democrats harkened to the Jeffersonian ideal of an egalitarian agricultural society, advising that traditional farm life bred republican simplicity, while modernization threatened to create a politically powerful caste of rich aristocrats who threatened to subvert democracy. In general the Democrats enacted their policies at the national level, while the Whigs succeeded in passing modernization projects in most states.