Which region are you referring to and how are you defining success?

America has had a race based caste system for most of its history. It arguably still does today according to Pulitzer prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson (in reference to her book Caste: The Origins of our Discontents)

None of this stopped it from becoming the wealthiest nation on earth. It became the wealthiest nation on earth before it let black people use the same bathroom facilities as whites, before it let women acquire their own credit, even before outlawing marital rape.

Authoritarianism / subjugation of disenfranchised groups is not mutually exclusive to wealth, even shared wealth.

Saudi Arabia remains a monarchy to this day and is wealthy because 1) America had no issue with a monarchy holding power if it meant access to oil and 2) America spent decades helping extract and then purchasing that oil. You'll see that social progress / lack of authoritarianism were not a part of the equation there.