Glossary – Contingency

The Life and Death of Democracy makes much of the point that democracy and contingency are twins.

What does this mean? Put most simply: compared with other types of government, democracy is distinctive because it nurtures the sense among people that power relations are neither ‘˜natural’ nor God-given nor blindly given, and that within the political order questions concerning who gets what, when and how should therefore remain permanently open and publicly contested, that is, subject to the principle that citizens must be treated as equals because nobody is inherently superior ‘˜by nature’.

The tendency of democracy to debunk the presumed naturalness of power relations can be seen in the history of inventions designed to handle, correct and tame the exercise of power. The early history of democracy, for example, is full of such political experiments that included written laws, the payment of elected officials, the freedom to speak in public, voting machines, voting by lot, and trial before elected or selected juries. Early democracies also experimented with ways of stopping bossy leaders in their tracks by using such peaceful methods as limited terms of office and – in an age yet without political parties, or recall and impeachment procedures – the ostracism of demagogues from the assembly by majority vote..