popular sovereignty

noun

1

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

2

: 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

Examples of popular sovereignty in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The patriots’ dreams of liberty ricocheted around much of the rest of the planet, too, pushing questions about human dignity, popular sovereignty, and citizenship toward the top of the global agenda and equipping rights seekers everywhere with a potent new vocabulary. —Literary Hub, 7 Nov. 2025

In many parts of the world, the radical belief in popular sovereignty undid the hold of the notion of the divine right of kings, just as expanding commerce created a wealthy merchant class eager for greater political say. —Jennifer M. Harris, Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2025

This is a huge tension in the early republic, because the revolution had been about liberty, popular sovereignty, representative government. —Sophia Nguyen, Washington Post, 16 June 2023

In a democracy, the key principle of legitimacy is not libertarian theories of rights but rather popular sovereignty. —Zack Beauchamp, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1848, in the meaning defined at sense 1