I can see this in many of the top economies, but is this true is all cases? China for example, seems to be doing well, but I can't really see that it's becoming less authoritarian.

China's social/political system is heavily authoritarian, but economically, in practice, it's quite laissez faire. The problem is when anything reaches scale in China the vultures in local government come in and try to get protection money.

They have been doing a lot recently to reduce this corruption and apparently have made good process. I don't doubt that social/political liberties will not improve in China but it's possible the business environment could further improve. Especially with the next president.

The only problem is the government created a very unstable economy with their massive spending projects after the financial crisis. And a lot of the wealthy people are rushing to get their money out instead of reinvesting it there and they are still very unfriendly to foreign capital (both human and financial).

When an authoritarian system does well, it won't become less authoritarian.

And populists bring simple answers - blame immigrants, blame Hillary, blame muslims, make Murca great again, etc. Or France. Oh also blame Europe.

Everyone uses populism to their ends. See occupy Wall Street. It's no surprise that organized labor (a secure vote for the left) broke with tradition and went anti globalization.

It's interesting to see the lower middle class once dependable voters for the left break right and likewise, upper middle class, once dependable voters for the right, break left. I'm glad that parties can no longer take their bases for granted.