The last decade of the past century has seen a revival of the scientific debate on an international democratic principle. In this context, the discussion has also split at a democratic-theoretical level into supporters of Global Governance versus adepts of Global Government, without this being rooted in democratic theory at all. On the contrary, developments of Realpolitik as well as the evolution of a principle of democracy in international law let us think that at the global level civil society, participatory-deliberative approaches as well as representative-parliamentary concepts start being two sides of one and the same principle. This article, with a focus on the representative-parliamentary history of ideas, intends to counteract the often existing dominance of deliberative approaches in favour of a more balanced debate. In this context, the sketches, in their multiplicity and continuity, are meant to constitute a contribution to democratic-theoretically based approaches towards the making of global politics at present as well as in the future.