On MacIntyre's 'After Virtue'

Western constitutional democracy is under increasing pressure from hostile forces. Its ability to defend itself against foreign threats and internal corrosion is in serious question today. One reason why Western democracy has great difficulty asserting itself coherently is its failure to articulate its essential identity. This failure is not merely intellectual but symptomatic of a larger inability to satisfy the moral and cultural prerequisites for this demanding form of government. The Western democracies are torn by deepening contradictions. Within a system of government that is singularly dependent on a realistic view of man and the world, utopian notions of politics enjoy great influence.