|
Traditionalist Conservatism Forum > Traditionalist Conservatism > Alexander Tyler's _The Cycle of Democracy_ |
|
| << Prev Topic | Next Topic >> |
| Author | Comment |
JasonEubanks  Registered User (7/31/01 1:47 am) Reply 
|
Alexander Tyler's _The Cycle of Democracy_ I'm sure you've heard the oft quoted slogan from this book. I can't seem to find the book itself anywhere. Does anyone know of an etext existing anywhere on the web? I usually get books through interlibrary loan and I don't think it's important enough to waste my time buying it. |
JimKalb  ezOP (8/3/01 10:51 am) Reply 
|
Re: Alexander Tyler's _The Cycle of Democracy_ Don't know the slogan or the book. Can you tell us more? Jim Kalb |
|
JasonEubanks Registered User (8/3/01 7:29 pm) Reply
|
Re: Alexander Tyler's _The Cycle of Democracy_ Tyler was a 18th century historian/economist who wrote in 1778 that democracy would last until the people were able to vote themselves a largess from the national treasury. After that, politics becomes simply a matter of distributing the treasury among political in-groups. Apathy sets in afterward and gives rise to tyranny. Anyways here's the slogan: ----- A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following 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 to bondage. ----- This quote is the central thesis from his work _The Cycle of Democracy_. I happened on it somewhere on the internet. His thesis cetainly sounds reasonable, but I was going to withhold judgment until I read the book in its entirety. Maybe it's a canidate for the resource list? Edited by: JasonEubanks at: 8/3/01 7:39:02 pm |
|
BK Glyndwr Registered User (8/10/01 8:27 pm) Reply |
Re: Alexander Tyler's _The Cycle of Democracy_ Jason! TWO hundred years.... for democracies, i think this may be an overestimate ;-). Then again, you guys (I assume you're an American) might just make 300, which I suppose put together with the 100 years of wasted promise in Athens gives an average of 200... it's hard to think offhand of anywhere else that's really ever been IDEOLOGICALLY committed to democracy. Other civilisations I would have said have a somewhat longer lifespan. Can't think why lol........... Glyn. Actually, it's 200-odd years since the French revolution, so perhaps this isn't such a bad estimate after all. |
|
<< Prev Topic |
Next Topic >>
|
 Topic Commands Click to receive email notification of replies  Click to stop receiving email notification of replies |
|
- Traditionalist Conservatism Forum - Traditionalist Conservatism - On to Restoration! -
| Upgrade your account to ezSupporter... |  | ...and never see another ad or pop-up again |
Powered By ezboard® Ver. 7.3u
Copyright ©1999-2003 ezboard, Inc.