Politics is often called a game. This implies that conflict is conducted according to unbreakable rules. Let us follow the metaphor. The best games are those of amateur athletics where winner and loser congratulate each other at the close and chatter gaily on their way to the changing-room. Some of us (as is my case) strongly disapprove of money games. While this is not the attitude of the majority, there are few people who would not regard it as deplorable that a man should hazard his family's keep at a card table.
Now imagine a player so foolish and sinful as to wager the liberty of his children, to be slaves if he loses. Should we be astonished to find this madman cheating to win, and upturning the table if he seems to be losing? Such disregard of rule must naturally follow from inordinate stakes. We must therefore conclude that to keep the game of Politics within the rules, the stakes must be kept moderate.
But here is the difficulty: in case of a game, a man is free to play or not; and if he does, he can limit his stake. Not so in Politics. In a card room, a few people are enjoying a game incapable of ruining them or of bringing misery to a third party. There enters a newcomer who raises the stakes. The old players cannot refuse the higher stakes, and if they leave the table, the intruder wins by default. This is Politics. The "old" parties of the Weimar Republic certainly never agreed to stake civil liberties and the lives of the German Jews on a game of dice with Hitler, but that was in fact what they lost. As this instance illustrates, it is not even necessary for the intruder to name the stakes: "You must play with me," he says, "and if you lose, you will find out in my own good time what you have lost."—Bertrand de Jouvenal, The Pure Theory of Politics
Political change is not always progress. The Roman Republic endured until the evil day when a bunch of Roman Senators fell upon Tiberius Gracchus and slaughtered the tribune on the very steps of the Capitol. There followed, inevitably, Marius and Sulla, fury and passion and relentless slaughter, until Octavius brought peace. Yet, as dearly bought as the Imperial peace was, the rule of law was shattered. Octavius was followed by Tiberius, then Caligula.
Sometimes the game of Politics leaves no choice but to stake everything on the outcome.