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A politically-involved friend recently forwarded to me an email string with a story that has been floating
around the internet for a couple of years or more. According to the story, in 1787, about the time the U.S.
Constitution was adopted, a professor of history at the University of Edinburgh claimed that:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of

government. . . . 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:

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.”

Seeking to explain the cause of this cycle, the professor stated:

“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 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.”

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1/ The Scottish professor of history is often identified as Alexander Tyler. According to the University of Edinburgh, the
good professor’s name is Alexander Tytler. See Marilyn Barnewall, Is your business heading toward bondage?, BUSINESS
REFORM, June 16, 2004 <http://www.businessreform.com/article.php?articleID=10613>
(visited Mar. 21, 2006).