The Political Economy of Their World Military Expenditures: Impact of Regime Type on the Defense Allocation Process

Abstract

Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Spring, 1988. ; Refereed Journal Article ; The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically verifiable framework for explaining patterns of third world defense expenditures. In doing so we have merged two areas of research that previously have been examined somewhat separately-economic (or ability to spend) with political (willingness to allocate resources to defense). In general our findings indicate that military regimes appear committed to developing the size of the defense sector to levels not warranted by economic size per se. They have done this through extensive use of externally borrowed funds. They have used increases in foreign exchange earnings to expand defense allocations, and they have distorted their price systems in a manner that facilitates increased defense expenditures. The major finding of the study is that ability and willingness factors, rather than external conditions, are instrumental in affecting third world military expenditures.