[Nov3]

That would be a Soviet founding father

[January24th]

Historian Alexander Fraser Tytler wrote then that “A democracy . . . can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.”

[January24th]

Historian Alexander Fraser Tytler wrote then that “A democracy . . . can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.”

[untenured]

Be very careful with this quote. I have seen it variously attributed to "Alexander Tytler," "Alexander Titus" and other similar combinations. It is often unsourced when it is used. I once tried to track it down in Bartlett's and other authoritative quote sources and was unsuccessful. If it was ever said, I'm not sure it was contemporaneously documented.

Web pages are full of mis-attributed quotes, so don't rely on them. I wouldn't trust it unless I had the document from which it came in my hands.

[VoodooEconomics]

http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/democracyinamerica/wwwboard/messages/27.html

[Soliton]

AUTHOR: Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747–1813)
QUOTATION: A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Alexis D'Tocqville said some cool things too.

[Soliton]

AUTHOR: Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747–1813)
QUOTATION: A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Alexis D'Tocqville said some cool things too.

[elbucko]

Alexis de Tocqville.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

I think this is the source of the quote you seek.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
from bondage to spiritual faith
from spiritual faith to great courage
from 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 back again to bondage.

--Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian.

[concerned about politics]

What have the Democrats ever done for Republicans?
They've not even givin us as much as a simple "Thank you for supporting us all our lives."
Instead, they attack and demand more. They bite the very hand that feeds them.

"Throw not your pearls before swine, lest they gobble them up and turn to devour you."

[eyespysomething]

I found this at Neal Boortz's site:

This is one of my favorites. From Alexander Tyler. No, he wasn't writing about the United States. This quote is well over one hundred years old. Tyler was writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic.

"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 treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have 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 selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

Although I see a lot of people have credited it to Tytler.

[ruoflaw]

Alexander Fraser Tytler 1748 - 1813 Scottish professor of history at Edinburgh University, a.k.a. Lord Woodhouselee, author of The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic (1776)

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP