Under a secular Western style government, they are required to become resourceful on their own, as well as advance Capitalism in order to prosper. They simply do not understand how this can work. Instead, they are ruled by fear and threats from a military or Theocratic Oligarchy.
Looking at every one of these countries, they all follow the same pattern. When they take down their current dictator, they quickly install another. They are just not comfortable under Dumbocracy. And their idea of “Freedom”, is having more than one Mosque to attend.
You are correct. Without Capitalism, the engine of democracy, these sand jockeys are just running the Rolls Royce out into the desert until it runs out of gas. The desert is littered with men governed by the vapors of totalitarian oligarchy.