The democracy versus autocracy framework adopted in this book reveals autocracies’ greatest vulnerabilities. They cannot sustain high, long-run rates of economic growth and their financial markets are fragile. They are poor alliance builders and their aggressive actions often provoke counterbalancing coalitions. They struggle to develop high-end strategic military technologies. They make big blunders in foreign and defense policy. And their biggest security threat comes from their own people, making their regimes unstable.
