Not really, in fact, the French revolution and the "democracy" (included was a period called the "reign of terror") that followed was closely followed by a empi

Not really, in fact, the French revolution and the "democracy" (included was a period called the "reign of terror") that followed was closely followed by a empire, and the French people were happy with that newfound stability. I think that what motivated the transition to democracy the prosperity made possible by the industrial revolution. No longer we need a population of dumb muscle since machines do better. Instead we need a healthy, well educated population, capable of innovation, so that we can build and operate better machines. And that's not the kind of population a coercitive regime creates.