Lord Sovereign
The resident Britbong
So I was trundling through twitter and found this rather splendid thread on democracies and their ultimate fates, posited by one Alexander Tytler, a 19th century Scottish judge and professor of history at Edinburgh university.
TL;DR his idea was that democracies can begin with tremendous virtue and courage having thrown off the shackles of tyranny, but as time passes will fall into selfishness and depravity as the system grows more wealthy. The fundamental issue is the utopianism of democracy: it can't function without a perfect citizenry, and as such a thing doesn't exist...
Even worse, the electorate can be influenced by effective bribes from would be leaders, who ultimately debase then crash and burn the economy to pay for all these benefits/bribes.
Mr Tytler believed it took two hundred years for this cycle to complete itself.
Food for thought!
TL;DR his idea was that democracies can begin with tremendous virtue and courage having thrown off the shackles of tyranny, but as time passes will fall into selfishness and depravity as the system grows more wealthy. The fundamental issue is the utopianism of democracy: it can't function without a perfect citizenry, and as such a thing doesn't exist...
Even worse, the electorate can be influenced by effective bribes from would be leaders, who ultimately debase then crash and burn the economy to pay for all these benefits/bribes.
Mr Tytler believed it took two hundred years for this cycle to complete itself.
Food for thought!