Modernization and the Military in Latin America

In the 1950s modernization began to be an important paradigm for Latin American development. Early modernization theory depicted the economies of Latin America as traditional and underdeveloped. The theme of technological progress runs consistently through the modernization model. The purpose of thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of political science 2001-07, Vol.31 (3), p.475-496
Main Authors: DeROUEN JR, KARL, HEO, UK
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Armed forces
Defense Spending
Economic Development
Economic externalities
Economic growth
Economic growth models
Economic growth theories
Government spending
Gross domestic product
Latin America
Military
Military aid
Military expenditure
Military spending
Military technology
Modernization
Original Article
Political science
Public expenditure
Technological Progress
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Summary:In the 1950s modernization began to be an important paradigm for Latin American development. Early modernization theory depicted the economies of Latin America as traditional and underdeveloped. The theme of technological progress runs consistently through the modernization model. The purpose of this article is to assess an important question raised by Latin American development studies: that large allocations for the military sector are conducive to economic growth in Latin America. While this modernization literature is somewhat dated, many recent quantitative studies have also shown positive economic benefits from defence spending in the Third World. The added relevance here is that our model captures technological progress. After controlling for technological progress and externalities, our analysis shows that the military portion of budgets in Latin America have actually hindered modernization. We discuss these findings in terms of regime type and levels of US military aid to the region.
ISSN:0007-1234
1469-2112
DOI:10.1017/S0007123401000187