#104: Voting and the Lifespan of a Democracy

May 6, 2012

A friend has just forward to me the following piece:

“In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

‘A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.’

‘The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;

From spiritual faith to great courage;

From courage to liberty;

From liberty to abundance;

From abundance to complacency;

From complacency to apathy;

From apathy to dependence;

From dependence back into bondage.'”

I think Professor Tyler was dead-on and his obituary for past democracies is also a prophecy for those that exist right now. I draw your attention to a post I did back on July 28, 2009,  #13. I am very happy to have been anticipated by Prof. Tyler, whoever he was, for the important thing is not to be first with an important truth, but to an instrument of its repetition and preservation.