Perhaps the most important reason authoritarian regimes fail in the modern world has to do with decision making. In order to make good decisions, you need accu

Perhaps the most important reason authoritarian regimes fail in the modern world has to do with decision making. In order to make good decisions, you need accurate information and a good discussion of alternatives and their likely outcomes. The modern world is so complex and changes so much that the only way to get this is a free flow of information in which everyone can honestly say what is happening in their particular part of the society, and everyone can make suggestions and offer evaluations. Authoritarian regimes shut all of this off, such as through turning the press into a governmental propaganda machine, and dictating what university professors can research. The consequence is the top decision makers live in an epistemic bubble and become increasingly out of touch with reality, and increasingly subject to group-think. And that in turn leads to poorer and poorer decisions, and eventually the system comes to an end. I think it is quite predictable that this is where Xi's regime is heading over the long term.