Originally posted by KazetNagorra
As far as I am aware, most democracies have a constitution. What examples can you give of democracies "usually degenerating into anarchy"?
The Greek city states are examples of competing democracies and republics founded at about the same time.
About 370 BC, Plato wrote: "A democracy is a state in which the poor, gaining the upper hand, kill some and banish others, and then divide the offices among the remaining citizens equally."
About 126 BC, Polybius wrote: "The common people feel themselves oppressed by the grasping of some, and their vanity is flattered by others. Fired with evil passions, they are no longer willing to submit to control, but demand that everything be subject to their authority. The invariable result is that government assumes the noble names of free and popular, but becomes in fact the most execrable thing, mob rule."
And about 63 BC, Seneca, a Roman wrote: "Democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants."
The article is posted by a good friend I met a few years ago http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1259556/posts
The Federalist papers on the subject of factions are also good at explaining the evils of unfettered democracy.
Even with a strong Constitution, it is evident in the US with State referendums, that limitations on government and democracy tend to slip away.