Jacksonian Democracy & Democratization (Part 3)

Political Democratization

  • Core Theme: “Democratization” = widening access, participation, and identification with government.
  • Expansion of the Electorate
    • Shift toward universal manhood suffrage: removal of property‐holding requirement.
    • Still excluded: women, African Americans, and Native Americans (i.e., not truly “universal”).
  • Voter Participation Surge
    • Turnout climbed to about 80%80\%—roughly double earlier levels and well above modern rates.
    • Causes
    • Larger voting pool after property bar dropped.
    • Andrew Jackson’s “common man” persona; voters identified with him personally.
    • Rising sense that policy decisions (tariffs, banks, land, industrialization) directly touched everyday life.
  • Campaign Culture Revolution
    • Pre‐Jackson figures (Jefferson, Adams) avoided overt campaigning—deemed undignified.
    • New mass electorate forced candidates to appear approachable; they literally “shook hands and kissed babies.”
    • Birth of modern political marketing:
    • Short, emotional slogans > dense policy treatises.
      • Jackson: “Old Hickory,” hero of New Orleans.
      • W. H. Harrison: “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.”
      • Modern echoes: “MAGA,” “Hope,” “Change,” etc.
    • Populist image management became standard practice in U.S. politics.

Religious Democratization: Second Great Awakening

  • Timing overlaps with Age of Jackson (c. 1820s–40s).
  • Key Doctrine: Salvation open to all—not limited to social/religious elite.
  • Church Governance
    • Congregational participation: lay members vote on church matters and leaders.
    • Mirrors political democratization (“one member, one vote”).
  • Proliferation of Denominations
    • Individuals free to choose (or found) religious paths → religious pluralism.
    • Seeds of modern separation of church and state: impossible to privilege one church when believers scatter among many.
  • Example Sects & Movements
    • Methodists & Baptists: explosive growth along frontier revivals.
    • Shakers
    • Practiced celibacy; relied on adopting orphans to maintain numbers.
    • States eventually banned that practice → sect nearly vanished (only handful alive today).

Social & Cultural Democratization

  • High vs. Low Culture
    • Pre‐Jackson: “culture” = elite pursuits (ballet, symphony, Shakespeare).
    • Jacksonian idea: ordinary people can value and create culture.
  • Rise of Popular/Folk Culture
    • Penny novels → Dime novels (inflation noted): cost 1¢–10¢, affordable to masses.
    • Genres: romance, adventure, rags-to-riches, racial “other” myths.
    • Entertainment forms born/expanded: traveling minstrel shows, circuses, frontier humor.
  • Modern Echoes
    • Pop culture dominance: reality TV (e.g., “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”), professional sports, ultimate fighting, tractor pulls, lingerie football.

Reform Movements & Utopian Experiments

  • Theological Basis: humans are not innately depraved; they are improvable.
  • Major Antebellum Reforms (all linked to democratization + moral perfectibility)
    • Temperance: curb/eliminate alcohol to improve society.
    • Abolitionism: moral crusade against slavery.
    • Women’s Rights: early conventions, e.g., Seneca Falls 1848 (just after Jackson era, but momentum builds here).
    • Prison & Asylum Reform: more humane treatment; rehabilitation over punishment.
  • Utopian Communities
    • Drop out of “corrupted” society to live communally/perfectly (e.g., Brook Farm, New Harmony, Oneida).
    • Reflect faith in redesigning social order to suit moral ideals.

Charles Finney & the Doctrine of Free Moral Agency

  • Finney = foremost preacher of the Second Great Awakening.
  • Free Moral Agency
    • Every person possesses God-given free will (a “spark of divinity”).
    • Individuals choose salvation, economic success, political action.
    • Clergy’s job: remind people of freedom, not dictate beliefs.
  • Broader Significance
    • Embodies Jacksonian glorification of the individual.
    • Resonates with modern American ethos: personal responsibility, self-made success.

Key Connections & Contemporary Relevance

  • Modern electoral politics (stump speeches, slogans, voter outreach) descend directly from Jacksonian innovations.
  • Current religious pluralism and church–state separation trace to Second Great Awakening’s democratized faith marketplace.
  • Pop culture supremacy (sports, music, reality TV) mirrors 19th-century shift toward low/folk culture.
  • Persistent reform spirit—temperance morphing into drug policy debates, abolition into civil-rights activism—reflects belief in societal perfectibility.
  • Core Ideological Legacy: belief that anyone can rise, choose, vote, create, reform—a foundational narrative of U.S. identity.