Suppose a distinctive characteristic of populism is the defense of a people excluded from the social and political benefits of democracy. Why do its discourse and actions generate so much controversy? Why would we oppose a project that seeks to improve society? Populism has perplexed us because, even though we may have intuitions or certainties about its dangers and excesses, any criticism seems to imply that we are denying the existence of the social injustices it denounces. To move beyond this conceptual and political perplexity, we must distance ourselves from its idea of "the people" and begin to ask how populism defines...