What is popular sovereignty? How was this concept included in the Constitution?

Answer 1

Popular sovereignty isn't in the Constitution. It was a method suggested in Stephen A. Douglas' Kansas Nebraska Act in 1854. The concept is that in the new states to be formed from the Nebraska Territory, the voters of those areas should determine whether these areas are to be free states or slave states. All of this territory is north of the 36 degrees and 30 minutes line established by the Missouri Compromise in 1821. This abrogation of the Compromise was such a drastic step, that it drew Abraham Lincoln back into politics (he had left politics after his term in Congress ended in January 1849 and returned to his law practice) and into the Senate race in 1858. The Kansas Nebraska Act, and its abrogation of the Missouri Compromise was the seed that blossomed into the Lincoln Douglas debates of that year.

Answer 2

are you studying civics or something? we just studied that a few chapters ago, and i remember it means, it's the idea that power lies with the people. The concept of that was included in the Constitution because the people had a say in it. They changed it a lot. I'm not quite sure if im correct, but it's something along those lines. I hope i was at least some sort of help. Good luck!!

Answer 3

I use wikipedia with care, but they do well with this one (the whole article is worth checking):

"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"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_sovereignty

It's connected with the idea of a "social contract" -- a notion we find in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence:
". . . Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED"

This idea that the PEOPLE establish the government and that it answer to them is specifically expressed in the Constitution in :

The Preamble:
"We the People of the United States. . . do ordain and establish this Constitution. . . ."

Article I
Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States

Section 2 provides that the selection of Senators is originally by the state legislatures, though these bodies are themselves to be elected by the people of each state.
... this becomes more direct with the passage of the 17th amendment:
"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof. . . "

Note that this article places ALL federal legislative power in the hands of Congress. Since all the legislators are elected by the people (the House directly, the Senate formerly indirectly, now directly), the PEOPLE choose the government that makes the laws.

Article II concerns the executive -- though the manner of the election of the chief executive (President) is indirect, the electors ARE chosen by means designated by state legislatures which themselves are chosen by the PEOPLE of that state.

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The Constitution also depends on the power of the people in the provisions for the ratification of amendments (Article V) and for the ratification of the Constitution itself (Article VII) in which the individual states (through their legislatures [elected by the people] or conventions)

You might also consider the 9th and 10th amendments concerning the "reserved" rights of the people (not specifically about how people choose their government, but they DO acknowledge the limitations of the government and primary of the people):

Article IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people

Article X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.