Draft:Fatal Sequence (Democracy)
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Fatal Sequence, in the context of a democracy, is the idea that democracies become unstable when the majority of voters start using the government to give themselves free money or benefits. This leads to irresponsible spending, economic problems, and eventually the system breaks down.
Quote
[edit]- 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 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, these nations always 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 dependence; From dependence back into bondage.
The list beginning "From bondage to spiritual faith" is commonly known as the "Fatal Sequence" or the "Tytler Cycle".
Debatable attribution
[edit]The source of this quote is unknown, but it has been attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee.
There is no reliable record of Alexander Tytler's having written any part of the text.[1] In fact, it actually comprises two parts which did not begin to appear together until the 1970s. The first paragraph's earliest known appearance[2] is in an op-ed piece by Elmer T. Peterson in the 9 December 1951 The Daily Oklahoman, which attributed it to Tytler:
- Two centuries ago, a somewhat obscure Scotsman named Tytler made this profound observation: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy".[3]
In popular culture
[edit]The quotes were popularized as part of a longer piece commenting on the 2000 U.S. presidential election, which began circulating on the Internet during or shortly after the election's controversial conclusion.[1]
The first known appearance of the "Tytler Cycle" or the "Fatal Sequence" was in a 1943 speech by Henning W. Prentiss, Jr., president of the Armstrong Cork Company and former president of the National Association of Manufacturers, delivered at the February 1943 convocation of the General Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania. The speech was subsequently published under the titles "The Cult of Competency"[4] and "Industrial Management in a Republic".[5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b The Snopes.com Urban Legends Reference Pages, The Fall of the Athenian Republic, accessed 21 March 2010.
- ^ Loren Collins. "The Truth About Tytler".
- ^ Elmer T. Peterson (9 December 1951). "This is the Hard Core of Freedom" (PDF). Daily Oklahoman. p. 12A.
- ^ Henning W. Prentis, "The Cult of Competency" (The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, University of Pennsylvania the General Alumni Society, Vol. XLV, Numb. III, April 1943).
- ^ Prentis, Henning Webb Jr. (1943). Industrial Management in a Republic. Newcomen Society in North America. p. 22.