Economic inequality is the single greatest determining factor for or against democracy. A society united in poverty (as in the middle phases of the Soviet Union) is going to oppose democracy, and a society with high inequality is necessarily going to have class antagonism
Marx had the right idea in that class warfare is what drives the political changes in countries, but this comes from alienation between the classes and always leads to a non-democratic alternative. Democracy only functions when there is low tension between classes, which only works with relatively low inequality (though not super-low, as that indicates a general lack of economic activity)
Hence with the swing of inequality exacerbated by the economic crisis causing lowered support for democracy. How do you think it happened inbetween the World Wars?
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.