It is understandable. The Netherlands is democracy to comes closest to ancient Athens. Twenty different political parties represented in parliament. A people who for 500 years have never agreed upon anything.
> Americans want a strong leader. It is understandable.
Is it? It seems incredibly stupid to me. It's putting 'strength', or intensity and effectiveness of action, above whether the action is a good idea or even makes sense. It seems to make competence secondary.
If Athens is legitimately a democracy then I am confused how you can come to the conclusion "one thing is for certain, a democracy can't be authoritarian by definition."
Athens killed Socrates using an authoritarian law after all.
I think we're using two different meaning of authoritarianism. It means both "undemocratic/rule of the few" (my statement) and tyrannical (your position).
Any state, democracy included, can be a tyrant (i.e. cruel and oppressive) against its perceived enemies.
