Question

What factors lead people to criticize their society rather than simply accept it?

Answer 1

Repression experienced by a minority often leads to protest. Without sufficient resolution of the dispute, a social criticism can be formulated, often covered by political groups (political monopoly). For protesting people within a social movement, it is often frustrating to experience failure of the movement and its own agenda.

The positivism dispute between critical rationalism, e.g. between Karl Popper and the Frankfurt School, is the academic form of the same discrepancy. This dispute deals with the question of whether research in the social sciences should be "neutral" or consciously adopt a partisan view.