Analysis of the Text by Ortega y Gasset

The correct answer is option A. A) Popular sovereignty.

1. The Central Argument of the Text: Who Wields the Power?

Ortega y Gasset's text is constructed to answer a single fundamental question about democracy: "who should exercise public power?". The answer offered is direct and unequivocal:

• "The exercise of public power corresponds to the collective of citizens." * "Democracy proposes that we all have a say; that is, that everyone intervenes in social events."

The central argument is that, in a democracy, the source and legitimacy of power do not reside in a monarch, an elite, or a specific class, but in the collective of all citizens.

2. The Definition of Popular Sovereignty

What the text describes is the classic definition of the principle of popular sovereigntyThis concept holds that supreme political power (sovereignty) belongs to the people, who are the only legitimate source of all governmental authority.

The idea that "everyone" should rule and intervene in social life is the practical manifestation of this sovereignty. Therefore, what sustains the exercise of power, in the democratic configuration presented, is the principle that the people are sovereign.

3. Evaluation of Other Alternatives

• B) Class division: The text does not mention social classes. It speaks of the "collective of citizens" as a unit. * C) Accumulation of capital: The text deals with political power, not economic power or the accumulation of wealth. * D) Defense of property: The topic of property is not addressed in the excerpt. * E) Administrative centralization: The text suggests the opposite. The idea that "everyone should intervene" points to a distribution or decentralization of power, not to its administrative concentration.

4. Conclusion

According to the configuration presented in the text, the exercise of power is supported by popular sovereignty, a principle according to which authority emanates from the "collective of citizens".