The following unverified quotation has been attributed to Tytler, most notably as part of a longer piece which began circulating on the Internet shortly after the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election:
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 complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
This passage actually comprises two quotations, which didn't begin to appear together until the 1970's. The list beginning "From bondage to spiritual faith" is commonly known as the "Tytler Cycle" or the "Fatal Sequence". Its first known appearance is in a 1943 speech "Industrial Management in a Republic" by H. W. Prentis, president of the Armstrong Cork Company and former president of the National Association of Manufacturers. The quote appears to be original to Prentis. No original author can reliably be determined for the first paragraph. It is possible that ''[[whoever first made the statement was paraphrasing or]] drawing a conclusion from the quotation given'' by Bartleby at the link listed below.
Cause its easier to appeal to some imaginary authority on the subject by manufacturing a quotation than it is to defend such a position. Considering this guy died in 1813 the only "democracies" hed have real knowledge of would be the french revolution, the american government, the roman republic and the athenian democracy. So considering the roman republic / athenian democracies / french revolution / american government didnt fail from loose fiscal policy he's either one shitty historian or, more likely this quote was created to inspire fear. And 200 years, wow thats such a foreboding number america is doomed.
Anyway this guy sounds like he knows what he is talking about check out these other quotes:
"And the one known as kennedy will be shot in the head in texas on November 22 1963. -- Tytler
"Buy microsoft" --Tytler
"Short bear stearns in the second week of march in the year of our lord 2008" --Tytler
If only we had been listenign to him all along.
