The Popular sovereignty reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Popular sovereignty

Popular soverignty is the doctrine that government is created by and subject to the will of the people, who are the source of all political power.

Popular Sovereignty is an idea that dates to the social contract school (mid 1600's to mid 1700's). The central tenet is that legitmacy of rule or of law is based on the consent of the governed.

Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were the most influential thinkers of this school, all postulating that individuals choose to enter into a social contract with one another, thus voluntarily giving up some rights in return for protections from the state of nature.

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