Economic growth ultimately shifts power from governments to their own middle classes

Evidence

By that time, however, Chinese economic development could make Western lectures unnecessary. Economic growth is strengthening Asian governments in relation to Western governments. In the longer run it will also strengthen Asian societies in relation to Asian governments. If democracy comes to additional Asian countries it will come because the increasingly strong Asian bourgeoisies and middle classes want it to come. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 519

Categorization

• XREF: Purely internalist democratic-transition theory (bourgeoisie-driven) that contradicts the rest of Huntington’s civilizational framework — he appears to be importing modernization theory here. — connects to: State growth shifted revolutionary coalitions from direct to indirect organizational forms — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1016
• QUESTION: Is there a tension between Huntington’s claim that democracy is culturally contingent and his concession that an Asian bourgeoisie will naturally want democracy? Worth interrogating.