On the Idea of Popular Sovereignty

The idea of popular sovereignty,which was brought up by modern bourgeois thinkers,implies that all people are created equal and that they should be governed by themselves in a political society. The generation of this idea is undoubtedly a significant progress in the history of human political thought. Marx pointed out that its essence is the sovereignty of the ruling class. Although people in different cultures and in different times have different interpretations of popular sovereignty,it has already become the orthodox thought on the legitimacy of state power in most modern countries. We should follow the popular sovereignty maintained by Marxism,draw lessons from western theory of popular sovereignty,deal with problems in the light of the actual conditions in the social transformation era,and push forward the construction of socialist democratic politics with Chinese characteristics both actively and prudently.