USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -popular sovereignty, also called squatter sovereignty, in U.S. history, a controversial political doctrine according to which the people of federal territories should decide for themselves whether their territories would enter the Union as free or slave states.

Detailed explanation-2: -Popular sovereignty means that the people are the ultimate source of the authority of their government. Popular sovereignty means that democratic government is BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE-for the benefit of the people, not for the benefit of those who govern in their name.

Detailed explanation-3: -The idea of popular sovereignty as it pertains to the extension of slavery to the territories in the antebellum era was a political concept that allowed the residents of the territories themselves, rather than Congress, to determine whether to permit or prohibit slavery.

Detailed explanation-4: -Popular sovereignty in its modern sense is an idea that dates to the social contract school represented by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778).

Detailed explanation-5: -Sovereignty is a political concept that refers to dominant power or supreme authority. In a monarchy, supreme power resides in the “sovereign", or king. In modern democracies, sovereign power rests with the people and is exercised through representative bodies such as Congress or Parliament.