Democracy as a global concept - an observation from the past, a warning for the future

I first posted this blog on 26 March 2005, and because it remains a salient topic I am republishing it.

With reference to my previous posts expressing doubt about the validity and global application of democracy, a friend recently sent me the following:

“At about the time the original 13 United States adopted their new
constitution, in the year 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 prior.

"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 worlds 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 complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

End of quote

In that sequence of events I would place the United States somewhere between dependence (depending on foreign financial institutions to buy over $2 billion a day in US T-Notes to finance America’s burgeoning debt and consumer appetite) and bondage (when countries decide not to buy the wonky T-Notes and US dollar, or decide to foreclose, leaving the US up for sale).