Most likely authoritarian nation to reform?

Which authoritarian nation would be most likely to engage in political reforms?

  • Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

    Votes: 14 28.6%
  • Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Democratic People's Republic of Korea

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hungarian Soviet Republic

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • German Reich/Greater German Reich

    Votes: 7 14.3%
  • Kingdom of Italy

    Votes: 14 28.6%
  • Republic of China

    Votes: 7 14.3%
  • French State

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Thande's Iberian Anarchist Federation (null vote)

    Votes: 4 8.2%

  • Total voters
    49
Which of these authoritarian nations would be most likely to reform in terms of political freedoms, while retaining their ideological bent and name? Assume any PoD after their birth and before their death.

A politically reformed country in this sense means popular sovereignty, freedom to criticize the government, and the ability of any member of the country to (theoretically and practically) become its leader, at least on the level of contemporary non-authoritarian nations. Their "ideological bent" means that beyond anti-democracy, the majority of their old positions are retained.

Quick notes: the USSR includes the RSFSR in its lifespan, the Kingdom of Italy is from Mussolini onward, and the Republic of China is one that controls the mainland.
 
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The Soviet Union was liberalizing shortly before the failed August Coup. In 1989 the Supreme Soviet stopped being a rubber-stamp legislature. Sadly, the Soviet Union was pretty much damaged beyond repair by then.
 
In defense of a back-runner: the DPRK.

The DPRK is the political descendant of the People's Republic of Korea, which was a provisional government set up by the Japanese in 1945 in order to smooth out the process of Korean independence. The PRK was designed upon fairly liberal democratic lines. The current situation in the DPRK is largely due to economic collapse after the fall of the Soviet Union and over-militarization. If one looks at a map, however, the DPRK's geographic position puts it in an excellent strategic position... if one just gets rid of that pesky Republic of Korea. A DPRK which controls all of Korea would be in a strategic position where it could easily choose between the USSR and the PRC, or neither.

If this DPRK was to align with Moscow in the 80s (or an ATL's equivalent period of social liberalization followed by collapse), they could easily become democratic with a much smaller risk of collapse, since their military would be much more in line with a nation their size (no serious strategic concerns), and Korea is ethnically unified. In OTL's DPRK, the ruling party is quite "popular," and it's entirely possible that a more democratically-inclined DPRK that hasn't undergone economic collapse (having reached out to Japan, Russia, and possibly even the USA) could maintain its hold on power for at least a few years.
 
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