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: -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-3: -Sovereignty is ultimate power over something, or freedom from outsider control. Popular sovereignty is a means by which a governing state or body is granted its power by the citizens of that state.

Detailed explanation-4: -To fully understand Rousseau’s concept of popular sovereignty it must be taken in the context of his earlier writing and political theory and rulership during the eighteenth century. The theory of popular sovereignty Rousseau develops in The Social Contract has precedent in Rousseau’s earlier writing.