Democracy is no longer the best form of government.

Welcome to whomever accepts my argument. I am arguing against democracy (Pro), and my competitor will argue for democracy (Con). In the first round, we will offer our initial opening opinions; second round we will offer rebuttals; third round we will address the rebuttals and wrap up our arguments. In my writing class, we have an assignment to choose a stance on a topic of our choosing, and give claims and warrants to support our ideals. The topic I have chosen is the fault of democracy in today's society. From this debate, I intend on getting some practice, while also hearing out the other side of the argument. I probably won't have the time to search for sources, as I am currently sitting in study hall, so it would be much appreciated if we use our prior knowledge and intuition to support our points! Also, this is my first debate, so welcome me to the website! I will now offer my claim. No one can deny the integrity of the Greek, Roman, and early United States governments (to give a few examples). Any form of democracy is fair and true, as it is of course the people making decisions for themselves, instead of someone higher up telling them what is right and wrong. And I would first like to say that I do not believe that democracy is bad at all. But I do believe that there is a better option! Over the years, the word "dictator" has turned into something that puts a sour taste in the mouths of free peoples. Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, all have put a skewed definition on the word, and for the sake of my argument I would like Con to consider the true definition of "dictator": A person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession. As you can see, nowhere in this definition does it say anything of a malicious attitude towards the people under a dictator's control, and because of this it should be understood that there CAN be such a thing as a GOOD dictator. In fact, we have a word for this: benevolent dictatorship. In a benevolent dictatorship, a single person exercises complete sovereignty over a state, but he does so for the greater good of the people. All of his decisions are for the betterment of his country, rather than oppressing it as fascist leaders have done. If indeed there is a person capable of leading his state with complete authority while making decisions solely to benefit his people, a benevolent dictatorship would be more effective than a traditional democracy. There are a few key advantages to this form of government. Most prominent is that the decisions of an intelligent, measured, mature man with leadership capabilities and the desire to help his people would be better than the decisions of the people in a democracy. As of late, it seems that decisions are hard to come by in a democracy. Nations are always split on topics, and often it's not even because of what people believe, but of what people think they should believe. The number of voters who are completely ignorant of political topics is frightening. For example, if a person KNOWS that a democrat will vote in favor of legalizing gay marriage, and that's all he knows of the issues, then he will vote for this candidate (assuming he is pro-gay marriage). Even if he is against socialism and deficit spending, he doesn't know that the person he is voting for is in favor of them. The biggest flaw of democracy is that people do not know how to vote for themselves. Another flaw is something I briefly mentioned above: The indecision and time it takes to cast a vote is damaging. I will use the United States as an example. Inside the democracy of the U.S. there is a chasm between two different voting parties. Both sides tend to take completely polar stances on topics with very few sitting in between. To make it even worse, neither the democratic or republican party have an upper hand. Split almost 50/50, America is showing a recent trend of not being able to get things done in legislation. A third flaw is wrongdoing on the part of representatives. There is only one thing that congressman care about: getting voted into or back into their chair. While campaigning, and while serving, they will do absolutely anything possible to either keep themselves, or their majority in office, even if it is at the expense of the people that they are supposed to be serving. With a dedicated benevolent dictator, no such problems would occur. If the dictator stays true to the meaning of his position, he will only do what is best. Decisions would be made as soon as his signature is writ, there would be no split indecision or fighting between parties, and there would be no ignorance clouding the integrity of democracy. After calculating the faults and strengths of each government, it is my belief that a form of benevolent dictatorship would be better than a democracy for any state, nation, or world. After reading my argument, I expect the respondent to address the reasons why democracy remains the best form of government in today's society, and why it is better than the benevolent dictatorship that I have proposed in my opening statement. Good luck and I look forward to hearing from you!