Our Nation Is Headed for Dictatorship

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 treasury.  From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship.  The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Fraser Tytler, “The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic,” c.1810. Cited in “Quotable,” The Berean Call, December 1999.