Political leaders and military spending

Abstract

How are patterns of military spending shaped by political leaders who have substantive policy preferences and need the support of their constituents to remain in power? A formal model developed to address this question indicates leaders’ preferences, political vulnerability, and motivation and their domestic audiences’ preferences jointly influence equilibrium military spending. I find variation in patterns of military spending consistent with the model's implications between 1946 and 2010. My analyses demonstrate that leaders’ desire to remain in power and individual-level characteristics and domestic audiences’ preferences jointly shape policy outcomes and, accordingly, suggest studying the interactions among them can provide insights into a range of topics central to peace science.