>>520901766 (OP)
The thing that worked were the institutions. When a country lacks them, it's possible to brute force them with a dictatorship. The logical next step would be a participatory democracy, that's how to really cement the institutions in the society. It remains to be seen whether they'll pull off that transition. But the project always seems to have been intended to take place over one or two centuries so they're probably right on schedule.