Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions. It only guarantees equality of opportunity.

The remark draws a sharp line between two different egalitarian ideals. “Equality of conditions” suggests leveling outcomes—material well-being, social status, or lived circumstances—through extensive redistribution or social engineering. Kristol instead frames democracy as primarily procedural: it secures fair access to civic participation and to the social “starting gates” (rights, legal equality, open competition), not uniform results. The implication is a critique of political projects that treat unequal outcomes as proof of democratic failure. In Kristol’s broader neoconservative outlook, this distinction defends market society and pluralism while warning that outcome-equality can invite coercive state power and erode liberty under the banner of fairness.