"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can
only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money
from the public treasure. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the
result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy
followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world's greatest civilizations has
been two hundred years. These nations have 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 selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
Alexander Tyler, 1778
// posted by zana at
10:17 AM
