Money Facts Archive Get the real facts that will shape your future by having them delivered to your Inbox!

Here's one definition and explanation of popular sovereignty from answers.com (which is credited to the U.S. Government Guide):

"Popular sovereignty is government based on the consent of the people. Government, established by free choice of the people, is expected to serve the people, who have sovereignty, or supreme power.

Popular sovereignty is the basis of constitutional government in the United States. The U.S. Constitution clearly establishes government in the name of the people. The preamble says: “We the people of the United States… do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Popular sovereignty was exercised according to Article 7 of the Constitution, which required that nine states approve the proposed frame of government before it could become the supreme law of the United States. The people chose representatives to ratification conventions who freely decided to approve the Constitution in the name of those who elected them. Popular sovereignty was also recognized in Article 5 of the Constitution, which provides for amendments to the Constitution through decisions by elected representatives of the people. Finally, popular sovereignty is reflected in Article 1, which requires that representatives to Congress be elected by the people.

Popular sovereignty, or government by the people, implies majority rule. People elect representatives in government by majority vote, and these representatives of the people make laws by majority vote."

This topic is presented today for the express purpose of calling attention to what may be the essence of the real problem that the United States faces as a nation. That problem can be summed up with the following question:

Do you think the United States Government still embraces the sovereignty of the people as the supreme power as intended by its Constitution, or has the United States Government become, in essence, a self-serving entity of its own?

You be the judge.

- Ed Smith