Some sub-Saharan African nations have been practicing democracy for a little while now, to say nothing of obvious outliers in the image (Turkey, India, Finland, Israel, Taiwan, etc). It's probably more the other way around: nations incapable of the infrastructure required to facilitate movement of populations or self-sufficiency also tend to be incapable of democracy (or any stable government for that matter). Local collectivism is a crutch for those that cannot be independent.