It isn't clear that democracy is a prerequisite. The UK was a monarchy, albeit a parliamentary one, in the 19th century. The PRC was a one-party state with str

It isn't clear that democracy is a prerequisite. The UK was a monarchy, albeit a parliamentary one, in the 19th century. The PRC was a one-party state with strictly limited political freedom in the period 01980–02015. Germany in the late 19th and early 20th century was a monarchy. Taiwan was a single-party state under martial law. Freedom of entrepreneurship and the resulting industrialization is clearly not dependent on democracy.