Abstract. In the scientific work systematization of scientific approaches to understanding the essence of popular sovereignty and analysis of the basic concepts that make up the doctrinal basis of modern constitutional models of popular sovereignty have been carried out. The author has explained the reasons for the formation of basic concepts of popular sovereignty; analysis of differences in understanding of people's sovereignty of supporters of different concepts; a connection was made between relevant concepts and current constitutional models of popular sovereignty. The aim of the study is to analyze the methodological approaches to the consideration of people's sovereignty within the following periods: pre-revolutionary, Soviet and state. Despite the considerable attention of scholars to the problem of democracy, democracy and people's sovereignty, the task of creating a holistic and consistent theory of people's sovereignty in Ukraine has not been completed. Therefore, it happens that the principle of people's sovereignty is opposed to the idea of human rights, people's representation, democracy. It is sometimes seen as incompatible with the principle of state sovereignty. As a result, people's sovereignty is perceived as a declaration, a certain abstraction or utopia. Scientific knowledge of people's sovereignty requires careful selection of appropriate tools - principles, tools and methods of research that constitute its methodology. That is why today we need modern methodological approaches to comprehensive scientific research of this problem. People's sovereignty is a complex political and legal phenomenon that cannot be understood within one of the two main theories of legal understanding - natural law or positivism. On the one hand, the essence of people's sovereignty is associated with such categories as legitimate government, political freedom, and the rule of law, which cannot be placed within the clear normative boundaries of the positivist approach. On the other hand, it is a constitutional principle, which finds its expression in specific rights: to establish and change the foundations of the constitutional order, to form public authorities, to resist illegitimate authorities, which are subject to analysis in terms of normative theory. At the same time, the realities of the functioning of the modern state and the practice of ensuring these rights are inseparable from civil society and are a reflection of social development.
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