The Growth Of Democracy And Emergence Of Political Parties

1.There were many causes for the growth of democracy and emergence of political parties in early 19th century. To begin with, the expansion of franchise was instrumental in the growth of democracy. This occurred because certain legislatures laid back on their policies regarding who was allowed to vote. Many states started to increase white male suffrage, starting with Maryland, Indiana in 1816, Illinois in 1818, and Alabama in 1819. By the mid 1820s majority of the states had expanding voting rights to all white men, or all that paid their taxes. This is a short term cause of the growth of democracy. A long term cause of the growth of democracy was the American Revolution. The revolution helped weaken the elite power at the top of society.†¦show more content†¦He believed that political parties were necessary to counter leaders from abusing power. His party,the â€Å"†Bucktails† became the first political machines and were able to win control of the New York leg islature. Buren’s success was important cause for the emergence of parties. A long term cause for the emergence of parties was the decline in the power of notables in the 1820s primarily due to the emergence of the expanded franchise. Different political parties started to emerge, and most were lead by professional politicians. We can see that as the power of notables decreased, there was more opportunity for others to create their own political parties which obviously lead to the emergence of new political parties: Key Terms: franchise, political machines, Martin Van Buren, spoils system The expansion of franchise was extremely important in the growth of democracy as well as the emergence of political parties. As property qualifications needs to vote were removed in the majority of the states, white men from lower classes were given a say in who the leaders should. This increased the growth of democracy as more people were given a chance to participate in the politics and elections of America. This is also led to the emergence of parties as the new voters tended to vote for those who were dressed simply and had popular ideas. This would lead to the wealthy notables losing