An observation about democracies

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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 ago.

"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 due to loose fiscal policy, [which is] always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilisations 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."

Some people might say that average citizen of Britain and America now 'depends' on the government and (with the growing size of their foreign debts)the government depends on Asian financing...

What stage are our 'great western civilizations' at now?

 

That's not a problem here in the US, since the government provides very little of the "average citizen." Now, if you are a corporate fat cat, a special interest lobbyist (one who donates lots of cash to politicians), or a defense contrator, it's a ride on the gravy train....

 

Tyler sounds like he's basing his theory on only one case of democracy - Ancient Athens. Most of the cause for the fall of Athenian Democracy was losing the war against Sparta and Macedonian supremecy soon after. I'd say there were too many 'outside' factors that led to the demise of Athenian democracy rather than it simply perishing of its own success.

 

It is an interesting theory and we will soon see whether it is true or not. Most of the worlds democracies are closing in on the 200 point now and after WW2 we have voted us lots and lots of gifts from the public treasury. One flaw with Taylors idea though is that the public treasury is just that, public. It is only as big as what the citizens put into it and if it is the citizens who fill the treasure it seems logical to me that it should be those who deplete it as well.

 

Modern economics stats that the more you spend in an economy the more tax is generated anyway. About 33% of all money the government spends within its own country will end up straight back in the accounts within one to two months.

As far as I can see the only thing that would damn Democracy is severe corruption or losing a war at home (I don't see any of the 'allied' nations doing that anytime soon, America would probably nuke an invading country before giving up any American soil).