popular sovereignty

Popular sovereignty  is the belief that the state is created by and therefore subject to the will of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated to the social contract philosophers, among whom are Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
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The political/legal principle that all legitimate political authority within a society derives ultimately from the will or, at least, from the generalized consent of the subject population. [See also: legitmacy, ideology]