This essay traces the impact of human development on political change, focusing on the events
of the Arab Spring. Over the past generation, most Arab States experienced rapid progress in
human development outcomes, including declining child mortality, increasing schooling and
increasing height of women. I posit that improvements in human development laid the
foundation for mobilization against political regimes. This thesis rests on three interlinked
propositions. First, human development led to increased political participation and knowledge.
Second, basic human development led to a dramatic increase in population needs and
expectations, creating new policy challenges and reducing public dependency on regimes.
Finally, the preceding changes resulted in values and attitudes conducive to regime change. Each
proposition builds on new theories of human capital accumulation over the life course that isolate
the human dimension of national development. I provide provisional support for these pathways
through cross-regional comparison and evidence from the unique case of Egypt. I highlight the
need for study design and datasets that can test causal pathways from health and education to
political participation and attitudes.