What is the significance of popular sovereignty?

Popular Sovereignty is a political term that simply means that the “people are the rulers.” This term is usually used in reference to political issues that are settled by popular vote or to governments based on the concept of democracy. The concept of popular sovereignty manifested itself during the Enlightenment.

During the nineteenth century, the issue of slavery gripped the United States. Rather than confronting the slavery issue directly, federal government leaders routinely avoided the slavery debate by forming compromises that utilized popular sovereignty. Rather than dictating whether or not a territory or state would or would not have slavery, government officials permitted people residing within a territory or state to decide the issue for themselves by popular vote.

The federal government utilized popular sovereignty in both the Compromise of 1850 and again in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. In the case of the Compromise of 1850, the federal government authorized citizens of the New Mexico Territory, if they ever applied for statehood, to utilize popular sovereignty to determine whether or not slavery would exist within the state’s borders. The United States outlawed slavery before New Mexico applied for statehood. With the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the federal government authorized residents of the Kansas and Nebraska Territories to use popular sovereignty. Kansas applied for statehood first, and pro and anti-slavery advocates resorted to violence to guarantee that their respective sides would win the popular vote. As a result of this violence, usually referred to as Bleeding Kansas, it became clear to most of the U.S. public and government leaders that popular sovereignty was an unlikely solution to the slavery issue.

While this deferred action is controversial in the United States, in Mexico, what Obama did is universally popular.
“He was a brave field commander and an expert in intelligence, and in organizing popular and tribal forces,” said the eulogist.
Whether he gets his full due in popular culture remains to be seen.
I know that in putting this before you I challenge some of the most popular affectations of cultivated people.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
As a good-looking young bachelor, though a detrimental, he had been very popular.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
In France the habit of snuffing was the most popular mode and to this day the custom is more general than elsewhere.
This work describes the fops and men of fashion of its time, and shows how popular the custom of tobacco taking had become.
Did he at all intrench upon your Sovereignty in Verse, because he had now and then written a Comedy that succeeded?
A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope|Colley Cibber

(in the pre-Civil War US) the doctrine that the inhabitants of a territory should be free from federal interference in determining their own domestic policy, esp in deciding whether or not to allow slavery

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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: a doctrine in political theory that government is created by and subject to the will of the people

: a pre-Civil War doctrine asserting the right of the people living in a newly organized territory to decide by vote of their territorial legislature whether or not slavery would be permitted there

Recent Examples on the Web Critics such as Jonathan Rauch insist that a surfeit of popular sovereignty has tipped the delicate balance of self-governance in the direction of strongman ethnic nationalism.

Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 12 Aug. 2021 Critics such as Jonathan Rauch insist that a surfeit of popular sovereignty has tipped the delicate balance of self-governance in the direction of strongman ethnic nationalism. Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 12 Aug. 2021 Critics such as Jonathan Rauch insist that a surfeit of popular sovereignty has tipped the delicate balance of self-governance in the direction of strongman ethnic nationalism. Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 12 Aug. 2021 With the field narrowed, the Democrats settled on the aging politician Lewis Cass of Michigan, whose support of popular sovereignty alienated the anti-slavery wing of the party and caused many to defect to the third-party Free Soil Party. Thomas Balcerski, CNN, 23 Sep. 2022 Critics such as Jonathan Rauch insist that a surfeit of popular sovereignty has tipped the delicate balance of self-governance in the direction of strongman ethnic nationalism. Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 12 Aug. 2021 Critics such as Jonathan Rauch insist that a surfeit of popular sovereignty has tipped the delicate balance of self-governance in the direction of strongman ethnic nationalism. Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 12 Aug. 2021 Critics such as Jonathan Rauch insist that a surfeit of popular sovereignty has tipped the delicate balance of self-governance in the direction of strongman ethnic nationalism. Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 12 Aug. 2021 Critics such as Jonathan Rauch insist that a surfeit of popular sovereignty has tipped the delicate balance of self-governance in the direction of strongman ethnic nationalism. Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 12 Aug. 2021 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'popular sovereignty.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use

1848, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of popular sovereignty was in 1848

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“Popular sovereignty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/popular%20sovereignty. Accessed 14 Nov. 2022.

Last Updated: 6 Nov 2022 - Updated example sentences