Did American Politics Become More Democratic In The Early 1800s

Students have often debated whether American politics were becoming more democratic in the early 1800s. American politics in the early 1800s had aspects in which they were becoming more democratic, and aspects in which they were becoming less democratic, when taking into consideration voting, campaigning, and political parties. Politics that are democratic are representative of everyone in America, and they everyone is able to participate in government practices. Politics that are not democratic are the opposite and do not represent everyone, or do not allow everyone in America to do participate in government practices. Although there are ways that American politics in the early 1800s were becoming more democratic, they failed to become fully

Voting practice at first glance may seem to be more democratic because there was universal white male suffrage by the early 1830s, due to the the educational and property limitations that were removed that held education-less and property-less white males back. Allowing all white men to vote, regardless of property ownership and educations allows more of the population to participate, however it still excluded a large portion of the population. For example, prior to universal white male suffrage, women in New Jersey were allowed to vote if they were educated and owned property; however New Jersey decided to change its policy and favor it towards white males. There was also an active effort to deny African Americans from voting. Voting is an important aspect of politics because it is supposed to give people a chance to have a say in government. Women were about half of the population, and to actively deny their right to vote makes American politics less democratic because it does not represent them in the government. Moreover, another group that was not represented in American politics were Native Americans. Natives, such as those in the Cherokee Nation who lived in the United States were also denied voting rights. When putting together all these groups together, the minority becomes a majority, and a government that does

From the 1830s to the 1840s, voter turnout increased by over from about 57% to about 80%, which is over 20% difference. Although it is important for as many people to vote as possible, the importance of voter turnout becomes less significant when knowing that the voters are less representative of the total population and voting can be manipulated. For example, during the voting process, there was the possibility of buying people’s vote. Now that white men without property and education could vote, their votes could also be bought. This would be a beneficial to them because they could get money they did not have in the first place in exchange for their vote, and it would be beneficial for the people buying their vote because it meant they now had one more vote in their favor. The problem with this is that the people buying votes are the elitist consisting of white educated men who own property. Therefore, giving the right to all men to vote was not as beneficial because consequently, there are more votes in favor of the elitist, which makes the voting process corrupt. When only a small portion of the population’s ideas are being represented through their votes, American politics prove to be less