The period called Jacksonian Democracy lasted from 1828 elections to the 1850s when the question of slavery in national politics became fundamental.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was elected president in 1828. His policies laid out what the young Democratic Party would be. Democrats were low to middle-class men unhappy with the rise of a class that got rich without working on the production of goods, that is, bankers, merchants and speculators.
Jacksonian democracy was characterized by a focus on the ordinary man and by a dislike of bankers,speculation, and aristocracy. It also emphasized equality more than previous Jeffersonian democracy. In this period the right to vote was amplified by eliminating property requirements.
The principle that government can only do what its people give it the authority to do is called "popular sovereignty," since the people, usually through representatives, are in control of the direction of the state.
