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“Does American democracy have more virtues than Authoritarianism or Totalitarianism?”
Before answering the question, “Does American democracy have more virtues than Authoritarianism or Totalitarianism?” we must first know the meanings of the three of these. Since the American democracy pertains to our country, I will start there. Democracy is a government by the people in which the supreme power is bestowed upon the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. Authoritarianism is a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator and is not restricted by a constitution, laws, or opposition. Totalitarianism specifies complete authority of a society and its members by harsh rulers and forced beliefs.
According to our text, “…the purpose of government was not, as Aristotle had claimed, to nurture virtue, but rather to combat vice. This unflattering view of human nature led these thinkers to stress the pursuit of realistic goals – liberty or security, for example, which may be politically attainable, rather than virtue, which is not.” These sentences help to prove that American democracy relies more on public good than having virtues. In Faces of Virtue by Donald DeMarco, he states that during an address to the United Nations, Pope John Paul II restated that “democracy requires wisdom and virtue: it stands or falls with the truths it embodies and promotes” and he was not referring to the Middle East, but to America.
Authoritarianism has had more success than democracies. According to our text, there are many virtues associated with authoritarianism. A few are “authoritarian regimes continue to be the main alternative to constitutional democracy; hence warrant examination, the will of the government cannot be easily thwarted by society, it is streamlined and therefore efficient, and it is relatively simple, as compared to democracy; no need for complex...