people focus material wealth like the efficiency of an authoritarian system. they justify it with the material/military success. to them, Qin dynasty is great even for today.
people focus on interllectual liberty value the freedom of a democratic system.
longer term wise, authoritarian system has more danger of leading to a disaster.
Worse, someone controls the power under the excuse of efficiency. Even if dictatorship is good, to be fair, you get to let others to have the chance of being the dictator.