Popular sovereignty or the
sovereignty of the people's rule is the principle that the authority of a
state and its
government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives (Rule by the People), who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated with
social contract philosophers such as
Thomas Hobbes,
John Locke and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Popular sovereignty expresses a concept and does not necessarily reflect or describe a political reality. It is usually contrasted with the concept of
parliamentary sovereignty, and with
individual sovereignty. The people have the final say in government decisions.
Benjamin Franklin expressed the concept when he wrote, "In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns".