[anovikov]

Not necessarily. I see Western societies of the future as a two-tier system: most countries turning to some form of Putinism - manipulative "democracies" inhabited largely by populace so dependent on the government handouts they can't even think of expressing any dissident opinion (plus low-scale, targeted repressions against those few who dare), and some islands of real democracy, inhabited and funded by money of global elite and even sort of a global middle class, who has multiple passports and siphons off the cash from countries of the first group.

[james_s_tayler]

Kinda hard to have real democracy when you have dictators that just kill people they don't like.

Want to stay as far away from that dynamic as possible. It's garbage and always will be.

[tekkk]

That's ridiculously black and white. Putinism is not a stable state for any country by any means, and Russia has been hemorrhaging talent and companies left and right because of it.

Your notion of "democracies funded by global elite" and a "siphoning global middle class" sound more of conspiracy theory babble than anything rational. And by the way you have concluded that there are only two paths for Western societies, I'd say your judgment has become heavily biased.

[anovikov]

Well, there's a third choice: police state, just accept that people will go crazy and be prepared to counter it with brute force. But this is too close to what Lukashenka does.