In China a notable example is the raising of the median income significantly, to almost 40k USD last I checked, essentially lifting a huge amount of people out of poverty.
The USSR raised life expectancy and HDI significantly, and when it collapsed both fell sharply in the resulting countries.



Not looking to offend but I’d be curious how they define ‘authoritarianism’ as well. My experience has been essentially that it’s often defined as “when the government does something”, which is essentially meaningless.