popular sovereignty

[ pop-yuh-ler sov-rin-tee, suhv-rin-tee ]

noun

1. the doctrine that sovereign power is vested in the people and that those chosen to govern, as trustees of such power, must exercise it in conformity with the general will.
2. American History. (before the Civil War) a doctrine, held chiefly by the opponents of the abolitionists, that the people living in a territory should be free of federal interference in determining domestic policy, especially with respect to slavery.

popular sovereignty

noun

1. (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

Word History and Origins

Origin of popular sovereignty¹

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Example Sentences

The core of our political dysfunction is that the Republican Party has increasingly become an anti-democratic party, which refuses to accept the legitimacy of its opponents or the supremacy of popular sovereignty that defines a democracy.

From Vox

Douglas had staked his political career on the doctrine of popular sovereignty, which granted settlers the right to establish free or enslaved territories.

From Washington Post

Many had radically different ideas of what it was that popular sovereignty should be rooted in.

From The Daily Beast

Their platform embraced “popular sovereignty”—a code for introducing slavery into the territories.

From The Daily Beast

Despite its autocratic tendencies, the Iranian regime goes to great extremes to maintain popular sovereignty.

From The Daily Beast

This is, after all, the only expression of popular sovereignty that Iranians enjoy.

From The Daily Beast

Their virtual assertion of popular sovereignty was temporarily smothered by imported tyranny in the shape of Sir Edmund Andros.

From Project Gutenberg

Marcel will break him if he deviate from the right path and refuse to bow before the popular sovereignty.

From Project Gutenberg

But there was a chance that one or more of these four pivotal free States might cast its vote for Douglas and popular sovereignty.

From Project Gutenberg

What then was the course of the champion of Popular Sovereignty?

From Project Gutenberg

There he uses words which reveal the limits of Popular Sovereignty.

From Project Gutenberg