Who are the People? A normative debate on two competing views of the people's idea

Who are the people? The question entails two main competing approaches, namely a liberal and a populist one. This paper provides a normative discussion of the rationales behind both approaches; however, a liberal position is defended over the populist one because of the effects that populism tends to have on constitutional norms of a democracy, i.e., separation of powers, checks and balances, and the rule of law.