In Du Contrat social (1762; The Social Contract), Rousseau argued that freedom and authority are not contradictory, since legitimate laws are founded on the general will of the citizens. In obeying the law, the individual citizen is thus only obeying himself as a member of the political community.

Montesquieu

According to Montesquieu, political liberty is “a tranquillity of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety” (SL 11.6). If different persons or bodies exercise these powers, then each can check the others if they try to abuse their powers.

According to Locke, the main purpose of government is to protect those natural rights that the individual cannot effectively protect in a state of nature.

The central tenet is that the legitimacy of rule or of law is based on the consent of the governed. Popular sovereignty is thus a basic tenet of most republics, and in some monarchies.

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.

Popular sovereignty means that the government can only exercise authority if it has been given permission to do so by the People. Therefore, popular sovereignty LIMITS THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT. The only legitimate power that government has in a democracy comes from the CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE.

Why was popular sovereignty appealing to politicians? It was a compromise between banning and protecting slavery in the new territories. It had the ability to allow the spread of slavery.