and we are having miscommunication here: an authritarian ruler does nots ay, look I'll give you democarcy after this many years.. he inititates policies that will make the nation democratic (despite his resistance to it) in the long run. Like I wrote in my reply to DCGIRL, the economic reforms create the preconditions or conditions necesasry for democracy, and the nation democratzies itslef.. without any external influence or without affecting the internal social/political stability.