PART I. DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY AND DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION.- Chapter 1. Jürgen Habermas and the communicative sovereignty of citizens.- Chapter 2. John Rawls and the constitutional identity of 'the people'.- Chapter 3. The old kid in town: excursus on participatory democracy and a "participatory conception of deliberative democracy.- PART II. CONTEMPORARY REPUBLICANISM.- Chapter 4. Popular sovereignty as popular control: Philip Pettit's republicanism.- Chapter 5. Richard Bellamy and the political constitution of the demos.- PART III. AGONISTIC DEMOCRACY.- Chapter 6. The people as hegemonic construction: Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's radical democracy.- Chapter 7. Dogmatization and pluralization: William Connolly's sovereign people.- PART IV. POPULISM AND RADICAL DEMOCRATIC THEORIES: HOW THIN IS THE RED LINE?.- Chapter 8. Populism in contemporary political philosophy.- Chapter 9. Where the line lies, and how thin is it.