...strictly speaking, WEIRD societies are not actual democracies, but rather plutocracies that have a nominal framework of democratic rights imbued in the political apparatus (but certainly not the economic). It has been like this since class-divided societies first emerged, beginning with ancient slavery, moving from there into feudalism, and from there into capitalism, where we remain today. I am not going to get into the usual divisive arguments as to whether this is a good world order or not.