The pre-existing exemplar of a parliamentary monarchy explains why the former colonies—which de facto were governed already before independence by their state
legislatures—‘‘changed almost overnight to fervent and apostrophic republicanism’’
(Finer 1997, p. 1493). With the creation of their republican state in 1787, the former
colonies replaced the relatively absolute sovereignty of the Crown-in-Parliament
with the constitutionally limited sovereignty of the people and their representative
government.