The LIfe of a Democracy

Around 1787, Alexander  Tyler wrote about the life of a democracy, including its birth, middle age, and eventual death.  Tyler said that it takes about 200 years for a democracy to reach its highest height before it then reverted back to bondage:

Here are his observations:

• From bondage to spiritual faith
• From Spiritual faith to great courage
• From Courage to liberty
• From Liberty to Abundance
• From Abundance to Complancency
• From Complacency to Apathy
• From Apathy to Dependence
• From Dependence back into bondage

"Remember democracy never lasts long.  It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself.  There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."  John Adams, April 15, 1814

"I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty, or civilization, or both."  Thomas B. Macaulay, May 23, 1857