There are some fascinating historical precedents for the coming failure of our "democracy." These Without apologies to any of those justifications I offer these literary scribbling with a SINGLE reference to source, being an apology for not being able to find some other than single authoritative single source to reference. The source I used is HERE, Loren Collins image on left. More information on all this is in the BACKGROUND.
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A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; Version #6: Paradoxically enough, the release of initiative and enterprise made possible by popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again after freedom has brought opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent, the incompetent and the unfortunate grow envious and covetous, and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the Golden Calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
Prentis reportedly had stock speeches in which he regularly recycled material, and such is true of this quote. For instance, he delivered the passage again in a speech to the Newcomen Society of England on October 4, 1946 in Montreal (Bulwarks of Freedom, p. 11), albeit with some changes. "The ancient systole and diastole of history has repeated itself in country after country:" he wrote, following this with a sequence that has two more stages than he cited in 1943, and one stage renamed. To wit: And another
The None of Prentis' uses of the Fatal Sequence that I have read include the Why Democracies Fail passage. Not that Prentis, a clear free-market advocate, didn't express vaguely similar sentiments, though. Later in his 1946 Bulwarks of Freedom speech, Prentis said "The three legs of our tripod of freedom stand or fall together. Destroy constitutional representative self-government, and pure democracy - the unmitigated rule of the current majority - soon degenerates into despotism and tyranny." And another
And now a reference to the ONE other democracy that is larger but younger than our own, India:
Indian Democracy - Coming Dark Times Historically - that is since the Vedic periods - India had been a very large group of monarchies, ranging in size from very small to very large, such as the size of a present small village of population of 500 to the size of an Empire with a population of 10 million or more ... in those days. The ruling kings were benevolent dictators - highly educated in and self-governed by Dharma (Ethics). The rules of succession were laid down so clearly, that there were hardly any conflicts on that account. Competence to deliver good and impartial justice internally and ability to ward off threats externally were considered most important characteristics needed for a monarch - in the process of selection and election. While the kings enjoyed the privilege and prerogative of nominating their successors while still functioning as kings - it was not automatic for confirmation. The ministers had the right to question the choice and selection of the king - about the track record of the nominee prince or the heir-apparent. Only after due deliberations on the choice of the successor, the new prince was confirmed for the crowning ceremony. The popularity of the king's nominee with the common people of the kingdom was also a major factor in determining the suitability of the heir-apparent prior to the confirmation as the crown prince. Even a small blemish in following the ethics or morals by the individual will permanently disqualify him for future kinghood. He was to function as de facto king (king in probation) - under the supervision of the actual king - for fairly long time to prove his mettle before getting the final confirmation as the king by the governing council of ministers. The retired king was never powerless; he held the veto power to disqualify the newly crowned king - if he becomes unpopular later by virtue of his conduct and bad governance. There was no incentive to indulge in corruption, while there were all rewards for good governance. Normally the eldest son of the king became the crown prince - unless his competence was in question, or one of his younger brothers was observed to be much more competent to govern. There have been numerous cases of elder princes voluntarily asking their younger brothers to take the crown - accepting their competence to be superior to their own; and the younger ones, having assumed power, treating the elder with great respect and affection there after. The epic "Ramayana" is the eternal handbook for mankind, for reference on what duties and responsibilities of individuals towards one anther - and how human relations in all testing circumstances are to be handled. Wars did take place among the kingdoms - both for power projections and economic considerations. Sharing of river water and agriculture used to be the main contentious issues, and occasionally the mineral wealth of one domain used to be the reason for wars among the neighbors. There were plenty of cases where the people of two neighboring kingdoms decided to recommend merger of their kingdoms and convinced their kings to do so for optimizing the benefit to all without any conflict. Such was the wisdom of those generations. Then India was invaded by Persian Muslims and that destroyed the ancient Vedic ethical culture - followed by Europeans and finally the British. India peacefully fought for their freedom for decades and got it finally to become the largest secular democracy in the world. One third part of then India - however chose a different path to become an Islamic theocratic state of Pakistan. Democracy by definition is an "informed choice" by people as to how they wish to be governed. In this so called punctured vessel of democracy as it has evolved to become what it is today, the perforated area of multi configured wholes is much more predominant than the vessel's holding surface area. The choice is not informed - but mostly manipulated by the powerful with their money or coerced with their muscle. Democracy or autocracy - both have draw backs and are not perfect. No system machinery which has the involvement of humans as its nuts & bolts can ever be perfect, unless Dharma (strict ethics) is the "main frame structure" holding those nuts & bolts as functional nodes. All said and done, democracy offers despite its inherent limitations, one high quality tool and opportunity, which autocracy often takes away and that is - The freedom of thought, speech and action - the qualities that differentiate and elevate humans from animals. If democracy as the system can be redefined and integrated with Dharma as the all encompassing essential, elemental and fundamental characteristic - as practiced by ancient kings like "Rama" of India, that "Dharmic Democracy" can be the most potential route to the highest levels of life achievable for mankind. This is the need of not only India but the whole world today! M.S. Raghavan Ayyangar.
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quotes from history are stunning, if only because a casual reader might think them, somehow, wise, because of their antiquity, or the age or stature of the author.
1: 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. 
Version 3: In a quotation attributed to the French author, Alexis de Tocqueville, the dangers of loose fiscal policy were stated as follows: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury."
government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority, he said, always vote for the candidate promising the most benefits from the treasury with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a dictatorship. Unfortunately, we can't argue with the professor because when he wrote that we were still colonials of Great Britain and he was explaining what had destroyed the Athenian Republic more than 2000 years before."
In a speech entitled "Industrial Management in a Republic," delivered in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria at New York during the 250th meeting of the National Conference Board on March 18, 1943, H. W. Prentis (President of Armstrong Cork) had this to say about democracy:
At the stage between apathy and dependency, men always turn in fear to economic and political panaceas. New conditions, it is claimed, require new remedies. Under such circumstances, the competent citizen is certainly not a fool if he insists upon using the compass of history when forced to sail uncharted seas. Usually so-called new remedies are not new at all. Compulsory planned economy, for example, was tried by the Chinese some three millenniums ago, and by the Romans in the early centuries of the Christian era. It was applied in Germany, Italy and Russia long before the present war broke out. Yet it is being seriously advocated today as a solution of our economic problems in the United States. Its proponents confidently assert that government can successfully plan and control all major business activity in the nation, and still not interfere with our political freedom and our hard-won civil and religious liberties. The lessons of history all point in exactly the reverse direction. - Henning W. Prentis, 
Bondage to Spiritual Faith;
change is significant to Prentis, as seen in his words that follow: "In the United States we stand today at the complacency-apathy stage." Prentis used this cycle in several other speeches he delivered, including one delivered on June 5, 1951. 
government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again, after freedom brings opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent; the incompetent and unfortunate grow envious and covetous; and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the golden calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more."
India, younger but much bigger, poorer than the US, home of Buddha, and now, perhaps following the US path? has a proud heritage of democracy and no shortage of intellectuals whose opinions about "democracy, freedom, materialism and spirituality are not absent from their scene: I, Karl Loren, have agreed to write a Foreword for my very good friend Dr. M. S. R. Ayyangar. He read the above in its incomplete form and sent me the following suggestion for HIS democracy, India: