[i]Origins of Political Order[/i] by Francis Fukuyama
 

Being a political science major, I decided to pick this up and it's pretty interesting.

Fukuyama argued that liberal democracy required three ingredients:
1. a state
2. democratic accountability
3. rule of law

The state originated in Han dynasty China about 200 AD and reappeared in Europe about 1500 years later. By a state, he meant an apparatus where bureaucrats are hired for their expertise. Of course, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam copied this type of political administration.

That is why the only countries that have modernized quickly under dictators have been in East Asia (one can argue Pinochet, but how successful he was has been disputed).