Military Expenditures, Health, and Education: Bedfellows or Antagonists in Third World Development?

Abstract

Whether military expenditure, health, and education are strange bed-fellows, antagonists, or complementary to modernization, economic development and the physical quality of life are the major questions addressed in this paper. Fundamental military roles in underdeveloped countries are discussed; and empirical cross-national analyses of aggregate data from the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), the World Bank, and world political and social indicators, are used to test competing hypotheses. Educational expenditures as related to human capital formation and the percentage of labor force in industry are found to be the best allies in predicting economic development. Other findings indicate that military expenditures are adversarial (or antagonistic) to health and the physical quality of life. The theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.