A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. Those words are widely attributed to Alexander Tytler, the Scottish judge and historian who lived from 1747 to 1813. There is, however, some debate over the attribution. Historians and researchers have questioned whether Tytler actually wrote the passage in the form in which it is commonly quoted, whether he expressed a similar idea that was later expanded and attributed to him, or whether the passage originated elsewhere. The exact authorship may be debatable. The warning itself is not.
Here is the prophetic quote:
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest 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 apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
This is no idle warning. Look at the United States today and the pattern is hard to miss. This is exactly what is happening today.
Our founders were statesmen who sacrificed much to create a system focused on the common good. They had businesses, farms, and families, and they risked everything to build a limited government unlike any the world had seen. Today we are governed largely by professional politicians, many of whom have never signed the front of a paycheck or run a business. Their careers are spent in government, and they are focused on re-election, promising voters increasingly more, but not paying for these programs.
The late Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a practicing physician, saw this coming. In his book “The Debt Bomb”, written 15 years ago, he warned of the fiscal path we were on. The problems he described are here.
Hellbound and Down 