In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, said this about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:
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“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 loose 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 through the following sequence:
- From bondage to 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.
The Obituary of the USA: Born 1776, Died circa 2012 to 2017
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:
- Number of States won by:
- Obama: 19
- Romney: 29
- Square miles of land won by:
- Obama: 580,000
- Romney: 2,427,000
- Population of counties won by:
- Obama: 127 million
- Romney: 143 million
- Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
- Obama: 13.2
- Romney: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory:
- Romney won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.
- Obama won was mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government Welfare
Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of Democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase. If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million invaders called illegals – and they vote – then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.
Apathy,ignorance and self service are the greatest danger to Freedom.
Total nonsense. There is no Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law and almost all of the “facts”, don’t check out or just interesting but so what. E.g. The land mass won by Romney was substantially more than Obama – fascinating but so what. Most of the MidWest and Alaska is open country that is filled with wheat fields, cattle and bears.
Here’s a really interesting fact:
Blond voters for: Romney 10,000,0000 Obama 2,000,000
Get ready for the new world order.
So much rhetoric in so little time.
Leon Said:
I think by injecting the veracity of Olson attribution might cause some to reject the veracity of the Tyler quote. I haven’t checked to verify that it was Tyler who originated the quote, have you? Whether Olson takes credit or not is of no consequence except to Olson himself.
Most rumors are baseless, but this one may not be. 😛
@ yamit82:
Since my comment was addressed to the original post (and I don’t see ANY questions there) and not to your comment, I dare to guess that those rumors of your modesty are very well grounded…
Shabbat Shalom!
Leon Said:
For our purposes it matters not a bit who wrote it. The question posed is still valid and Germain.
Eric R. Said:
Monarchy or theocracy or a combination of the two, both biblical mandated.
Ok, if democracies only last 200 years, what type of state will Israel be circa 2150?
From Joseph Olson’s personal web page:
“DISCLAIMER: There are a series of emails floating around the internet dealing with the 2008 Obama/McCain election and the 2000 Bush/Gore election, remarks of a Scottish philosopher named Alexander Tyler, suicide rates, or ANYTHING ELSE. I did not author any part of either email. I’ve been trying to kill this fallacy for 10 years. I didn’t have any part of it in 2000, and I still have no part of the email in regards to the 2008 election. For details, see: http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp.”
http://law.hamline.edu/constitutional_law/joseph_olson.html
The real question is not what political system can exist eternally? None can. The question is also not what political system outlasts all others? There is nothing inherently wrong with societies changing their system of government. The question is what political system conforms to our best goal right now? Early democracies had an electoral barrier: not everyone could be elected, but only the people whose age and status offered a good chance that they would lead society wisely. Compare the early leaders of America to what now exists. How far America has diluted those initial barriers.
The Torah implies the democratic governing of Jewish communities in the injunction, “Do not follow the majority to evil.” Presumably in other instances one has to follow the majority. “Do not follow” is not passive. If the majority is deluded into thinking that homosexuality is a liberal value rather than an abomination, or that the destruction of Gush Katif will bring peace with the Arabs, passive resistance turns into acquiescence. “Do not follow” dictates continuing in status quo ante, the old ways. In the above examples the commandment tells us to continue treating homosexuality as wickedness and Gush Katif as Jewish land from which the Arabs are barred.
Ben Franklin advanced his version of the “do not follow” rule: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” That’s the essence of republican or liberal democracy: people submit to majority vote if it does not infringe on their deep seeded values; if it does infringe, then we always have the right of insurrection.
Democracy is a comfortable order for established wealthy societies, but in times of crises, the Romans appointed dictators. In all democracies especially the American version, any candidate who tells the unpleasant truth to the mob has no chance of being elected. An honest candidate stands no chance of securing sufficient financing, as he is not sufficiently corrupt to shower his benefactors with government contracts and subsidies upon reaching office.
Democracy was never practiced on a large scale in antiquity, but only in small cities where participatory democracy remains viable.
In all cases, democracy quickly eroded into demagoguery, tyranny, and then monarchy.
Equating a democratic process to freedom is a misnomer. What is freedom? Do we have the right to vote ourselves into bondage and serfdom? To prefer security to freedom? In ancient Greece the values of their society were not debated but accepted by all. Their democracy’s were only the means to achieve their goals.