Introduction: Democratic Openness and the Difficult Experience of Political Freedom

1. The Rule of the People? Collective Autonomy and the Wagers of Democratic Openness

2. Promises, Promises: The Abyss of Freedom and the Loss of the Political in the Work of Hannah Arendt

3. “Open Sesame!” The Affirmation of Contingency and the Politics of Openness in Laclau and Mouffe’s Radical and Plural Democracy

4. Generating a Virtuous Circle: Democratic Identity, Moralism, and the Languages of Political Responsibility