The fact remains, however, that if Aristotle, Guicciardini, or Montesquieu were right, lot would have distributed equally that minute probability, whereas election did so unequally. One can also argue that, this probability being so low, the distribution of offices became a less pressing and politically urgent problem, since the stakes were smaller than in fifth-century Athens or fifteenth-century Florence, even assuming that the value placed on office-holding was the same in each case.