Liberal Democracy: The Preservation Of Popular Sovereignty

Popular sovereignty is giving the citizens the mandate to be the source of government power, which is giving the people the will to choose a leader through an election to be governed by these leaders chosen. The word popular came about in the early 15th century, which was directly derived from the Latin word popularis meaning belonging to the people, general or common. The name sovereignty on the other hand hailed from the mid-14th century resulting from the Anglo- French sovereynete, Old French souverainete, from souverain meaning authority, rule, and supremacy of power or rank. In the late 14th century the meaning became clearer explaining it as a sense of “existence as an independent state”. (Harper, 2001) According to the origination of these two words one can say popular sovereignty is the power or authority belonging to the people in an independent state. With the topic concerning …show more content…
As quoted by Avram Naom Chomsky who is described as the father of modern linguistics and a major figure in analytic philosophy, stated that” The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy”. (Liberal Democracy Quotes, 2015) This essay outlines how the principles, institutions and mechanisms of liberal democracy safeguards popular sovereignty.
In order to uphold the preservation of popular sovereignty there are certain principles, institutions and mechanisms of liberal democracy that must be recognized. Principles of liberal democracy constitutes equality, accountability, political tolerance, citizen participation, multi-party system, human rights, rule of law, transparency and separation of powers (Johnson, 2009). Equality in a liberal democratic country talks about every citizen of a country having the