There is perhaps a pragmatic argument for being a dictatorship if your goal is to climb from backwater to "developed" nation very quickly and then to transition

There is perhaps a pragmatic argument for being a dictatorship if your goal is to climb from backwater to "developed" nation very quickly and then to transition to a democracy, but the authoritarians in charge have a history of nixing the second part of that plan. We thought this was what China was going to do until their new emperor emerged and made himself president for life.