They never were very democratic there, and historically they had no large mercantile class anyway.
If anything, China has adopted far more of the Western democratic model than anyone could have ever really have anticipated.
Hey, regarding "rosey views", anyone who thinks life would have been better with the Nazis in charge of Russia is definitely sucking on some strange stuff!
I've "sucked" my share of "strange stuff", but I never suggested that anybody would have been better off with the Nazis running Russia (or anything else). Reread my post.