Does wealth inevitably lead to freedom? Or does it quietly breed complacency?

For decades, political theorists like Seymour Martin Lipset have argued that prosperity is the soil in which democracy grows. When people rise above poverty, they gain both the time and capacity to participate meaningfully in politics.

But the modern world complicates that idea. China and Vietnam have achieved remarkable economic growth under one-party rule, while democratic nations wrestle with inequality and disillusionment.

If prosperity can sustain both democracy and dictatorship, perhaps the true question isn’t whether wealth brings freedom—but whether it dulls our hunger for it.

 Highlights

• Lipset’s modernization theory: democracy grows from prosperity.
• Economic decline as a catalyst for regime collapse (Kalyvas).
• Japan’s democratic prosperity versus China’s authoritarian capitalism.
• The paradox of wealth without freedom.
• Does comfort suppress the will to challenge power?

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