The development of a national market after 1815 transformed not only the United States' economy but also its entire society. A series of fundamental political changes followed the market revolution, a shift that historians often refer to as the rise of democracy. The Revolutionary generation had not valued democracy particularly highly, even though the United States by 1789 offered widespread suffrage by European standards. Politics in the early Republic still exhibited a strong elitist strain, with leadership remaining in the hands of the economically and socially privileged classes. Appeals to the masses remained restrained, popular participation (though higher than before) was limited, and politics played only a minor role in most people's lives. All of these standards began to shift during the Jacksonian period as the earlier style of politics gave way to a more exuberant spirit of democracy.