How to distinguish “Jacksonian democracy” from “Jeffersonian democracy”? A period of nearly 30 years is associated with the presidency of Jefferson, his successors and his "democracy" from 1801 until that of Andrew Jackson. elections in 1828. A vision of a united and equal America, limited government, and a natural aristocracy governed the Jeffersonian style of democracy. However, with the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, a new form of democracy, different in many respects from Jeffersonian America, engulfed the American political and social scene. Jacksonian democracy, a dream of the common man, the use of presidential veto and Anglo-Saxonism and other elements dominated this form of democracy and this era. Despite this, many historians, such as Glyndon G. Van Deusen, have argued that the two democracies are similar in many respects, suggesting that the "Jeffersonian concept of a simple government, tightly constrained by frugality and by a strict construction of the Constitution, was generally accepted as the ideal political system", supported by Jackson himself declaring himself a champion of "good old Jeffersonian democratic principles". In contrast, this article will seek to distinguish the differences between the two democracies on topics such as race and internationalism, through the use of key texts on the period, such as Edward Pessen's Jacksonian America and The Jeffersonian Tradition in American Democracy by Charles Wiltse. One of the main ways of distinguishing the two democracies is Jefferson's view of a natural aristocracy and Jackson's view of the common man. Natural aristocracy, an essentially elitist view, stems from the idea that intellectuals of good and virtuous character such as Frontiersm...... middle of paper ......Sociology, Vol.10 No.2, (January 1951) - Mashaw, JL, "Administration and 'Democracy': Administrative Law from Jackson to Lincoln, 1829-1861", Yale Law Journal, Vol. 117 no. 8, (June 2008) - Pessen, E., Jacksonian America; Society, personality and politics. Revised edition, (Homewood: Ill Dorsey, 1978) - Reynolds, R., America; Empire of Liberty, (London: Penguin, 2010) - Smelser, M., The Democratic Republic: 1801-1815, (Prospect Heights: Ill Waveland Press, 1992) - Van Deusen. GG, The Jacksonian Era, (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1959) - Van Deusen, GG, The Rise and Decline of Jacksonian Democracy, (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1970) - Wilentz, S., “Striving for democracy”, Wilson Quarterly, Vol.32 No.2, (Spring 1999)- http://abolition.nypl.org/essays/us_constitution/5/ Accessed 03/16/2014- http://millercenter.org/president/speeches / Consulted on 08/05/14