For most of human history, it has been the ruler with the greatest army that ruled. Relatively recently, the power of the few has progressively been weakened by increasing levels of democracy and freedom for the many. This has provided many benefits for more and more people and has proved very successful and popular, as evidenced by migration movements away from authoritarian countries towards democracies.
However, democracies, whilst successful, need constant maintenance and vigilance if they are to be stable on the long term. There are still those who want to have it all and take over as sole ruler. History has shown time and time again, that freedom is not handed to you on a plate, it has to be fought for. If the general population is apathetic or afraid to act, it is very easy to turn a democracy into a dictatorship. But to do the opposite, to turn a dictatorship into a democracy, is extremely difficult.
But not impossible.
And should you be interested, download the book "From Dictatorship to Democracy" by Gene Sharp from the Albert Einstein Institution.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62b0eb7da51f3717911bb4e1/t/642f2c6a956bc34188310fbe/1680813163028/FDTD+%28English%29.pdf
Post Scrip Oct 24. I've been reading of the importance of a well educated mid class majority to be present in order for a healthy democracy to thrive. If a country has a majority of poor people, the majority don't have the time, education or power to partake in politics, so a ruling elite dominates by controlling the wealth and laws. However a vibrant and large middle class, has the education, time, wealth and political clout to monitor and debate events and keep leaders in check if necessary.
If you consider countries where democracy is waning, is all the wealth being concentrated into less and less people, and the mid class getting poorer.? How the wealth is distributed in a society is important, you don't want lots of poor people and neither do you want few extremely rich people.
