This is CBSI on the world. I'm with my colleague Gregory Copley, whose new book is about the transition that we're witnessing right now from Republic to what comes next.

The noble state is the book, governance options in an ignoble era. Autocracy. We can see it in smaller states easier than in the large states, but it's increasingly

now the option after republicanism.

In democratic states, so-called, and in authoritarian states, undemocratic states at the

same time.

Certainly Russia and China evidence large states that are smoothly moved into autocracy.

And Gregory and I have talked recently about what's happening in West Africa with three states that were democratic and are now autocracy.

Gregory, one of the things Republican states attempt to do

when they're feeling this push of autocracy is suppression.

Does that work?

Does that hold off the inevitable?

It holds it off only temporarily because what happens is that once you open the

the chest, the war chest and people see there's a whole world out there and opportunities,

they want those liberties, those benefits faster than any government can deliver them.

And we saw that in Iran, with the Shah trying to open the society to more liberal democracy,

but the people wanted more and more and more until they basically created the coup

or the revolts which ended up in the departure of the Shah.

So you get the situation where if you put the lid on too tightly and then open it a crack, that's the end of the story.

Because you can never deliver the benefits fast enough.

What we saw happening in the USSR was a very similar thing.

Gorbachev thought that through Glajanoist and Perestroika,

he could start to open the society,

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