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This paper begins with a review of the social science literature on the role of time in politics and goes on to propose a research program focused on the hypothesis of a particular relationship between elected officials and time. If elections are seen as defining the temporal framework of political action, this relationship is chiefly marked by the uncertainty of electoral success and by individual and collective efforts to manage the resulting risk. This perspective allows us to focus on the defining and normative aspects of “democratic time,” such as uncertainty, short time-horizons, and a disproportionate focus on the present. To start with, we propose an initial “top-down” approach to the management of electoral rhythms that focuses on the stakes linked to the temporal ordering of elected office. The second possibility is a “bottom-up” perspective that will focus on the different ways in which the relationship between the cadences of election and the rhythm of public action have been understood. The aim here is not so much to understand the meaning and nature of this relationship between the notions of cycles, critical conjunctures, and paths of dependence, as to observe the intermeshing of electoral and decision-making cycles in the daily management of individual and collective agendas with a view of improving our understanding of leadership in space and time.