I would agree. Below is a graph of the Human Development Index. The Human Development Index is calculated using data like life expectancy at birth, schooling, and Gross National Income (GNI) to produce an index number that ranges from zero to one with one being the best possible rating.There appears to be an order to economic, social and political evolution that cannot be imposed with military force. For your consideration.
The second data-point is a derived from World Values Survey data. The world values survey is conducted once every five years or so and includes data from over 80 countries. It asks a series of questions to determine the values that are most important to the society. Dr. Ronald Inglehart and Dr. Christian Welzel have used the data from these surveys to produce dimensions that can be used to estimate societal values. Traditional vs. Secular dimension reflects a contrast between societies where religion and tradition is very important versus those where they play less of a role in determining an individual’s personal values. Survival vs. Self-expression dimension reflects a distinction between those societies that emphasize economic and physical security to versus those that find subjective well being to be more important. Combined the two provide a basic yardstick for measuring whether a society has communal/survival values or whether the society has individualistic/liberal values.
The squares are full democracies, the diamonds are partial democracies, and the circles are autocracies (based on Polity IV data). Base on this I would say that first human conditions increase, then the values change, then you get democracy. You might also note that there are almost no countries that are individualistic with a low Human Development Index.
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