[vladms]

I lived through a change from "authoritarianism" to "some kind of democracy". Many of the people in the country that took advantage of the population before (by being authoritarian) were the ones that sold the enterprises and resources and then used the money to build new enterprises.

Did that change much for me as an individual on the spot? Not much - they were people taking advantage before an after and most people were poor.

Did it change the possibilities on long term? It did. 20 years later there are more developments and opportunities than before under the "authoritarian" regime. Is it equally spread and for everybody? No. But neighbor countries that did not go through the change have it worse...

I am sure not all countries have this trajectory, but some do, YMMV