Was Eastern Europe's Successful Transition Inevitable?

illiberalism rising in Hungry and Poland is a thing and has being since refugee crisis of 2013 or so, but you could point out that liberal democracy either never took off in the first place or collapsed around 1996 in Russia

that could have being the route of eastern europe
Orban is a proponent of what he calls "illiberal democracy". Is "illiberal democracy" an oxymoron? Can illiberal democracy be as succesfull as liberal democracy? What are the negatives and positives illiberal democracy has over liberal democracy?
 
Eastern Europe is especially miraculous when you look at other revolutions that are coupled with economic collapse such as Egypt and Libya. Even Tunisia has struggled to establish stability with their democracy.
Maybe the fact that Eastern Europe has a lower population growth or even population decline made it easier for them to take care of the remaining population?
 
Top