| 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 2000 years before:
"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
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 throught 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.
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