Tenacity of Tyranny: The Sources of 21st Century Despotism

The Tenacity of Tyranny: The Sources of 21st century Despotism poses this question: Given that democratic countries constitute 55% of humanity and that the material standard of living are generally considerably higher in many democracies than in almost all of the world's dictatorships, what are the factors that allow for autocratic regimes to persist? Despotism should be an ever-shrinking phenomen...