About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new Constitution in 1787, 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 earlier:
“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 they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always vote 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 civilizations from the Beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through The following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage”
Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:
Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29
Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this Great country. Gore’s territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned 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.
Are current events accelerating or slowing the demise of the American democracy?
Hat tip to Mark Clower