A sequence of events Alexander Tytler suggested commonly occur during the lifecycle of democracies and republics. He theorized that most systems of liberty last between 200 and 250 years. The sequence was first known to have been presented in the form of a visual cycle in a 1943 speech by Henning W. Prentiss, Jr., president of the Armstrong Cork Company and former president of the National Association of Manufacturers. The speech was delivered at the February 1943 convocation of the General Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania. Tytler’s sequence, and the cycle, starts out with a society in bondage. It then follows the following sequence:
« Back to Glossary IndexFrom bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.