Jacksonian democracy is the term used in American politics to describe the period when the "common man" participated in the government, occurring after Jeffersonian democracy.

Andrew Jackson was the first president to be elected by the masses, as his election was the first election to allow free white men without property to vote. In addition, some political parties began holding public nominating convention-meetings to select a party's presidential and vice presidential candidates- to allow more voter input. Since Jackson fought alongside the trappers and traders in the War of 1812, he was someone that the masses, who were now able to vote, related to. He commonly discussed politics in his parlor with other men while smoking cigars in contrast to the more formal meetings common to Jeffersonian Democracy. As a result of this informal attitude to politics, he was sometimes advised by a group of old friends, known as his "kitchen cabinet". The faction of the United States Democratic-Republican Party that solidly followed Andrew Jackson were sometimes referred to as Jacksonian or Jacksonian Democrats.