Jacksonian democracy through the eyes of foreign travellers: Sándor Bölöni Farkas and Alexis de Tocqueville 1831

This thesis examines the American democracy during the presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837). I will demonstrate that the American system was democratic from the point of view of foreign travellers, but it can be questioned by today's readers. In the 19`hcentury American democracy was a unique phenomenon which was worth to be examined. I will use contemporary decrees of Sándor Bölöni Farkas' Travelling in North America (1831) and Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America (1834), I will reveal that they thought the American democracy had been the best form of the state. I will conclude that this democratic system can be questioned by today's readers because nowadays democracy conception is different from the concept of 19` hcentury. From this point of view I will show America had a semi-democratic form of the state during the examined period.