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Correct. Moreover, when you are trapped by the government, few things work better than raising international awareness. Even if the companies ultimately comply, that is typically done loud and clear, and eventually snowball until it's unsustainable.

So there's this thing called a gag order.

Banking companies are more than happy to fold like a cardboard box if either government threatens their money-making.

What "institutions of democracy" would that be, if the state is fascist or communist? And I think you severly underestimate the reach a totalitarian state has. Hint: it is total.

People don't change because a state is democratic. There are still authoritarians getting voted into power and present in the government; they just get voted out if the damage they are doing gets too visible.

People change a lot when the environment changes, this has been shown over and over again. You actually only have to look around. Yet it's the people who make the state not vice versa. Quite a conundrum.