@RNTheMinefield This greater degree of civic commitment should be largely intrinsically motivated, you care because you want to not because Big Brother points to your head. In authoritarian states, basic of authority and legitimacy is coerced, any opinions and ideas that deviate from the central party line are violently suppressed, lucky ones go to jail without trial and for many die and disappear. 
I cringe everytime when people say life is better in authoritarian regimes, for starters conversations like this wouldn’t even have happened!
Trust is better in non-democracies? Has Stephens even lived in places like China? 
Are autocracies better that maintaining ethnic diversity? Well I don’t know about others but say that to the Tibetans and Uyghurs living under the CCP!