Popular Sovereignty
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Democracy.
Jacksonian democracy
Popular sovereignty is the idea that the government is of the people. It means citizens are in power. Limited government stems from this idea that government is there to protect the people and popular sovereignty.
The idea is referred to as "states' rights".
The consent of the governed is an idea born of the enlightenment and the writings of John Locke. This is the idea that a government gains its power via the willingness of the people to support it. The US system expresses this notion by holding elections in which the people (the governed) select their representatives to govern (there by giving consent).