What counts as arbitrary power?

What counts as arbitrary power? Civic republicans argue that an account of political liberty or freedom as consisting in the absence of domination best captures the spirit of the classical republican tradition, and also provides the basis for an attractive contemporary political doctrine. Domination, in turn, is usually understood as a sort of dependence on arbitrary social power. While there are many aspects of this conception of freedom as non-domination that might be regarded as controversial, this paper focuses on the specific issue of arbitrariness. It advocates a particular conception of arbitrariness that diverges from the mainstream view among civic republicans, and from the view of Philip Pettit in particular. Specifically, it argues that arbitrariness should be understood procedurally, and not substantively.