I don't think that the people living in democratic nations are any more fortunate than those living in the authoritarian states. For example, India is a democracy, but the living standards are horrible. Compare that to China, which is an authoritarian country, but the living standards are much better than that in India.
Indian society is free to speak his rights in any field including businesses, they are better than dictatorships. India concerned with aspects of quality than quantity, so government policies affect average economic development.
China is not a democracy, but the government focus to widen people's economy as a whole, they are freeing people to emulate any existing famous brands in the world without any sanction. They believe their economy will spin without the help of foreign countries.
In economic theory, if there is freedom that is fully supported by the government, the country market will grow rapidly, but very wild and many legal cases will appear.