The advocates of democracy naively believed that if Third World countries adopted democracy, these countries would somehow magically become mirror images of First World democratic society overnight. But after 50 years of democracy, does India look like America yet? Do any of these other Third World republics look anything like America yet?
The French and American Revolutions are collectively known as the "Bourgeois Revolution" because by the late 18th century, large middle-classes had developed. These large middle-classes were born during a century of "enlightened despotic" European rulers, who codified the laws and made other reforms that set the stage for capitalism to flourish and large middle-classes to develop.
But if you mindlessly graft a democratic political structure on a majority-poor Third World country, what else do you expect to get other than some typical Third World legislature, which is dominated by socialist, pro-big government politicians? These socialist politicians cater to their poor constituents by blocking every pro-capitalist economic reform imaginable. Instead, they favor continuing the massive welfare state that gives their poor constituents "guaranteed government jobs for life."
When you introduce democracy in a country with a majority-poor population, how else do you expect the democratically-elected politicians to act? Even in America, the poor constituencies overwhelmingly vote for the socialistic Gephardts and Daschles of the world. So imagine how much worse the situation would be if America, like most Third World republics, had a 90%-poor and socialist-voting population!!!
If PRC is governed by the likes of Lee Kuan-Yew and his bureaucrats, I would have more hope. But it does not. Its political class is worse than those of S. Korea or Japan at any time. And problems it has are more difficult to solve.
China has set itself up into a mess where no amount of democracy or enlightened dictatorship can help.