Sunday, September 09, 2012

de Tocqueville had it all figured out

.. when he wrote: A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. The time has come, boys.

1 comment:

Arelcao Akleos said...

I would add the addendum that it is not so much the people figuring out they can help themselves to the nation's Treasury, it is the "elite" that forms through time that, addicted to the opium of Power and Privilege, figures out how to kill off democracy as a meansto helping themselves to the nation's Treasury.
But, then, this is consistent with what deTocqueville leanly set out.