I rather liked this...
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 deomocracy always collapeses over loose fiscal ploicy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from great courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency to bondage.
From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury, with a result that a deomocracy always collapeses over loose fiscal ploicy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from great courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency to bondage.