A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of
government. It can only exist until the voters
discover that they can vote themselves largess of
the public treasury. From that time on the
majority always votes for the candidates promising
the most benefits from the public treasury, with
the results that a democracy always collapses over
loose fiscal policy, always followed by a
dictatorship. The average age of the world's
great civilizations has been 200 years. These
nations have progressed through this 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 again to bondage.
--Sir Alex Fraser Tytler
(1742-1813)
Scottish jurist and historian