Kenneth M. Pollak expresses several reasons which explain the emergence of the uprisings in Understanding the Arab Awakening. Pollak begins by explaining that the main reasons behind the Arab uprisings are the frustrations the people were living initially due to a stagnant economy that underwent no change since its beginning. While other economies were evolving and developing, Arab communities were lagged behind. Pollak continues to claim that another factor that contributed to the lack of development lied in the also stagnant educational system in the Arab countries. The lack of development of any kind of critical thought led Arab countries to remain in the mindset of accepting and internalizing any repressive regime that imposed upon them.