The Military in Politics and Democracy: Its Impact on Government Spending for Education and Health

Abstract

Objective There is considerable debate over the determinants of government spending, but few studies have considered the impact of the military in politics. This article examines how the military in politics and democracy and the interaction between them might affect the allocation of government spending. Methods I use a variety of econometric specifications, including pooled‐OLS, panel data with random effects and fixed effects estimation, and a panel data set of 129 countries from 1984 and 2013. Further, the SGMM estimator is used to check for robustness. Results The empirical results show that the military in politics has a significant negative impact on education spending. The results also indicate that the interaction between the military in politics and democracy has a positive impact on government spending for education and health. Conclusion The results suggest that policies to reduce military involvement in politics, combined with those to increase civilian control of the military, would have a considerable impact on social development.

Military spending and sustainable development

“…Others argue that military spending may exacerbate income inequality if (1) workers in military‐related industries are paid better than those in other sectors, (2) there is an income disparity within the military and ‐related industries between less‐skilled labor (e.g. low‐rank soldiers) and high‐skilled research and development personnel, and (3) military spending crowds out social expenditures, such as education, health, and social transfers (Ali, 2007; Apostolakis, 1992; Biscione & Caruso, 2019; Fan, Wei, & Coyte, 2018; Graham & Mueller, 2019; Kentor, Jorgensen, & Kick, 2012; Shin, 2020). Another group of studies reported a mixed or no significant relationship between military spending and income inequality.…”

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“…A number of other control variables are used for robustness checking. The size of the population aged 65 and above (pop65) represents a demographic cohort that competes for education spending in the form of transfer payments to the elderly population (Shin, 2020;Busemeyer, 2008;Iversen and Stephens, 2008;Avelino, Brown and Hunter, 2005;Brown and Hunter, 1999). Military spending (military) is also expected to compete for education's share of public resources, especially in countries with a large military presence (Shin, 2020;Baqir, 2002).…”

“…The size of the population aged 65 and above (pop65) represents a demographic cohort that competes for education spending in the form of transfer payments to the elderly population (Shin, 2020;Busemeyer, 2008;Iversen and Stephens, 2008;Avelino, Brown and Hunter, 2005;Brown and Hunter, 1999). Military spending (military) is also expected to compete for education's share of public resources, especially in countries with a large military presence (Shin, 2020;Baqir, 2002). The fiscal balance (fiscbal) and gross public debt stock (debt) are both expected to have implications for how much of the public purse is allocated to education (Busemeyer, 2009;Huber, Mustillo and Stephens, 2008;Tilak, 1989Tilak, , 1990.…”

“…To measure economic development, income per capita has been widely used as an explanatory variable in studies of education spending (Shin, 2020; Afonso and Alves, 2017; Cockx and Francken, 2016; Garritzmann and Seng, 2016; Dragomirescu-Gaina, 2015). The intuition is that richer, more developed, countries have greater resources with which to fund various social programmes, such as education (Brown and Hunter, 2004).…”

“…The intuition is that richer, more developed, countries have greater resources with which to fund various social programmes, such as education (Brown and Hunter, 2004). The evidence suggests a positive relationship between the national effort measure and economic development (Shin, 2020;Cockx and Francken, 2016; Akanbi and Schoeman, 2010; Huber, Mustillo and Stephens, 2008; Busemeyer, 2007;Stasavage, 2005;Baqir, 2002;Ram, 1995;Tilak, 1989).…”