Geopolitics

This may be the strongest case for authoritarianism:

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/how-liberal-democracy-might-lose

Basically: the war for people's hearts and minds has no stable equilibrium except local hegemony of one dominant elite, much like (and for the same reasons as) what Hobbes pointed out for regular war.

From my european perspective, what China has achieved economically is incredible, although socially  it still scares me. On the other hand, the military tentacles of the US, with 750 military bases in more than 80 countries, also frighten me.