The seductiveness of authority may be a human weakness, but it does not follow that collectivist ideas are attractive to the man in the street. A society can be authoritarian without being collectivist, but all collectivist societies are authoritarian. Some of the most successful societies in history have allowed free enterprise under an authoritarian umbrella–such as Hong Kong, Singapore, the Renaissance cities under the Medicis, and now Dubai whose Prince recently discovered laissez-faire policy and encouraged free enterprise by removing bureaucratic regulations. It is the modern democracies that have allowed populist welfare/victim mentalities to limit the free market that we see reduced freedom and economic stagnation. Indeed an enlightened despot can do more for his people than a modern nation does once it falls under the influence of the Enlightened Liberasl leftists who seek to destroy capitalism.
