What is Popular Sovereignty?
Popular sovereignty is a basic concept of government that revolves around the idea that any state or government is only made legitimate if the will and power of the people consent to it. Literally, political power rests on the people residing in a state or country and not on the people holding positions in government. But this concept is more of a philosophy rather than a reality according to some. This concept of government though is very important for people or groups of people who believe they live in a self-governing state. The actual powers of the people may be in the form of representations to government and/or political activities and it may be applied differently between varying countries, but the main concept is preserved.

Many forms of government are said to be based on the concept of popular sovereignty. Even countries in republic types of governments and monarchies are supposedly patterned from the basic concept of political power by the people. But experts on these matters believe that even if true power rests on the people of a particular state or country, it doesn’t always mean that it will result into an efficient democratic rule. Besides, we as part of a country or state, know all too well that in some countries, leaders may abuse their supposed powers but still claim to represent the people’s will.

This problem of power abuse from those in authority is not only applicable to present times. Even in the past, records have shown that the Greeks and Romans also had a “representation” system in their republic types of government. Though it is true that their particular system literally represented the concerns and will of the majority, there are also sectors of the society that have been excluded, like people who became slaves, women, and others who had limited or no rights.