[yywwbbn]

Usually the monarchy/dictatorship was overthrown to be replaced by a somewhat more democratic government (both peacefully or violently). Autocrats rarely were willing to give up any of their power voluntarily and paradoxically in the rare cases where they did it only hastened their downfall

e.g. I’m pretty sure Loui didn’t expect in his worst nightmares that his head will be chopped of a couple of years later).

The only successful exceptions I can think are is Spain after Franco died, Taiwan and South Korea but these are all rather modern.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/38521576

Probably not exactly what you’re looking for, but it tackles the somewhat bumpy transition from industrialization to democracy (or rather why it didn’t exactly work out that way)

[sidibe]

Killing Louis didn't lead to less authoritarianism it led to Robespierre and eventually Napoleon. Most of today's liberal democracies didn't come from revolution or civil war but from foreign forces deposing tyrant or peaceful transition. This includes France which only became democratic after Prussia ended Napoleon III

[yywwbbn]

Yes, the transition wasn’t very smooth though. In cases with little foreign interference, it was more like:

Absolutist monarchy -> violent jacobin style revolution -> ??? (a lot of war and dead people)-> reactionaries come back to power -> a more moderate revolution/coup which brings a more balanced regime which establishes some kind of a rule of law based constitutional order.

Britain only had a single cycle of this, while France needed 2/3.

It not like the goal of Prussia was to establish a democratic regime in France, that was just side effect and arguably Napolean brought that war on himself (just like his uncle did with Russia)

[imtringued]

>Autocrats rarely were willing to give up any of their power voluntarily and paradoxically in the rare cases where they did it only hastened their downfall

Read this section:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_revolutions_of_1848%E2%...

Summary: The King gave half the population what they wanted and then he used good old military force to struck the rest down and then he regained all of his powers.

[sofixa]

Louis gave up his power voluntarily (to an extent, the kingdom was bankrupt and he had to make concessions) by accepting a constitutional monarchy. He bumbled his way to the scaffold afterwards, and he only got there because he had already accepted sharing authority with an elected legislature.

Many other monarchs gave up their "divine" rights under pressure, but without being really overthrown.

[umanwizard]

> The only successful exceptions I can think are is Spain after Franco died, Taiwan and South Korea but these are all rather modern.

What about the UK?

Mexico is another modern example; it became democratic gradually and peacefully in the late 90s or early 2000s. There was no sudden regime change, and the formerly ruling PRI is still a major political party that runs in the (now fair) elections.