The most instructive case is Russia, where President Putin is none too tenderfooted about squelching dissent and reimposing the Kremlin's supremacy over the republics. Indifference soon brings injury to young democratic institutions, as Haiti's manipulated May election demonstrates. Or take Zimbabwe, a democracy only in name where Mugabe has used all the tools of despotism to preserve his autocratic rule. Apart from Britain, no Western government has really raised its voice in defense of the opposition and the white minority. More protests, especially if uttered in unison, might have intimidated the intimidator.
Liberal governance means limited governance.
It requires the protection of minority and property rights. It entails freedom of speech, press and assembly. It depends on the rule of law, hence on an independent judiciary. Nor should one argue, as do so many autocrats and their defenders in the West, that freedom from material want is more important than freedom as such. Under Idi Amin, it turned into a basket case.