@clacke Having said that, though...

At least one European country has moved from dictatorship to democracy through a revolution, and has since stayed a functioning democracy for more than 40 years: Portugal.

I will not pretend I know how that came to be, but my impression is there was a deliberate, honest direction towards a country for every citizen. If so, maybe that left fewer inhibiting scars and tensions, and kept the country from falling straight into chaos. (I'm sure there was enough hardship along the road.)