At first blush this is a remarkable assertion. Our faith in democracy is shaken when elections dangle on the vagaries of a hanging chad. Or settled precedent is abruptly overturned by a partisan court. We are justifiably outraged when innocence depends on on zip code. Or the latest twitter meme.
As Blackstone argued in Commentaries on the Laws of England (1783), the law should be “ permanent, uniform, and universal “.
But perhaps stability can emerge out of chance. After researching over 2500 years of democratic governing experience, scholars such as Bernard Manin observe that randomness, historically speaking, was the ultimate guarantor of fair elections and predictable lawmaking.