The Tytler Cycle in History

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy–to be followed by a dictatorship.”  Alexander Fraser Tytler

(Thank you Goodreads.com for the quote and picture)

I originally posted this in 2017…Now where do you think we are? This year we have watched things we never thought we’d see in this country.

Taking a government class at the local college, I was introduced to the Tytler Cycle in History.  According to Commonsensegovernment.com, Alexander Tytler was a Scottish historian who lived at the same time as the American Founding Fathers. Tytler described a repeating cycle in history and found that societies went through this same cycle again and again. According to Tytler’s observation the cycle lasted roughly 200 years each time.  Considering the timeline of the United States,  and what we see happening now, I wonder where you think we are in this cycle?