I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There.

[NJCher]

9. when people are part of the process (meaning protests)

Democracies tend to learn from mistakes and become stronger whereas other societies usually not.

They (meaning protesters and those who seek to form substantive changes) have a stake in the outcome. Other types of government preclude that. I think this is why people in democracies can learn but people with other types of government probably don't.

An aside: I used to tell my students that when forming a judgment about protesters, follow the money. I would point out that they're not getting paid. In fact it's probably costing them a day's salary to go protest.