[kalavan]

Doesn't Norway bring that conclusion in doubt? The state gets massive revenue from oil as well as oil-financed investments, but is still very much a democracy.[0]

[0] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu?tab=t...

[iambateman]

Sure. It’s also possible Norway is just an outlier and not the coming norm.

I personally - as an American of Norwegian descent - am proud of how they’ve built much of their country…and I hope we can learn from it.

[kalavan]

It might be that democratic countries are more resilient to that kind of effect because (and to the degree that) they already decouple productive power from representation.

E.g. a welfare state doesn't make sense from a purely GDP-selfish perspective, beyond as a crime-prevention tool, since people on disability benefits don't work. But they still exist.

[netsharc]

According to this article, it was down to 1 Iraqi:

https://www.ft.com/content/99680a04-92a0-11de-b63b-00144feab...

[keybored]

> Sure. It’s also possible Norway is just an outlier and not the coming norm.

It’s a petrostate NATO country that the US can’t nearly as crazily obviously meddle with and more importantly exploit. That is the outlier.

[mxkopy]

The differentiating factor is that Norway wasn’t colonized.

[29athrowaway]

Because they need they still need the favor of the populace for collective defense and territorial control.

The regional military powers have more population.