[etrevino]

I'm not sure why you say this. Germany and Italy didn't collapse-- they were conquered. The Soviet Union did collapse, it's true, but it collapsed because of external pressures and sclerotic bureaucracy causing an inability to adjust to internal problems. In all three cases there was an external force contributing to the problem. However, there's no reason to assume that China's authoritarian rule will collapse as well. Indeed, in several Soviet successor states (including Russia), authoritarianism has reasserted itself.

Authoritarianism is easy to impose and democracy is fragile; the civic discourse required for a strong and stable democracy relies upon a considerable amount of mutual respect and rhetorical restraint.

[irq-1]

South Korea had decades of dictatorship with a relatively easy transition to democracy and liberal capitalism.

[etrevino]

That's true. It's the maintenance of that democracy that's hard, though. Plus, it was by no means certain that the country would become a democracy.

[jerry40]

External pressure as one of reasons of USSR collapse? Come on, really. You can't be serious. It had lived under much more strong pressure more than 70 years before authority decided to demolish the union. What pressure do we speak about? Commodity prices decrease? I can't believe the west is involved in the free market manipulations though. Unthinkable.