Andrew Jackson Political Philosophy Essay

The spirit of Jackson’s political philosophy was indeed democratic. He was in favor of the participation of the common man in the government. He was a populist leader, a war hero, and he believed in the power of the “common man”. Instead of all this republican thinking, Jackson’s political philosophy had some serious limitations. That is his political philosophy can best be described as Jackson’s democracy, or to be more precise a limited democracy.
Jackson political philosophy was built on the following tenets. One, he believed in the extended voting rights of the people. Universal suffrage for white males was a central element of his philosophy. He was very engaged in the process of removing the property restriction for voting. Second, he was a strong supporter of the “spoils system”. The “spoils system” was the policy to appoint political supporters to government positions. In his eyes that was a good policy as …show more content…
He believed that the bank was a government monopoly, and it served only the elite. He considered the bank as an opponent of public interest and a tool for the exploitation of the common man. So, as an Everyman’s President, he set out to destroy the bank. To quote Jackson’s own words, “The bank is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!” So he did. (Remini) The political effect of the bank war included political upheaval as all the opponents of Jackson joined hands and made the renewal of the Bank an election issue. But the victory of Jackson in the election showed that people favored his view. Not only that even his nominee for the next election won the election and his party won the majority in the Senate as well. As, for the economic effects, the bank war did cause panic in the economic sphere as the state banks were unable to meet the demands of the public. In the views of some experts, this clash was behind the economic slowdown of mid