It’s Alexander Tyler:
“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.
—Alexander Tyler
See my post a #5. There is no evidence that it was Tytler, nor any evidence of any other identifiable author. Pity, because it’s great statement.
Interesting website that says this quote from Tyler is a hoax - the actual author is unknown.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north484.html