IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/848.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Democracy, Democratic Consolidation and Military Spending

Author

Listed:
  • Ibrahim Ahmed Elbadawi

    (Dubai Economic Council, UAE)

  • Philip Keefer

Abstract

We introduce two considerations into the debate about democracy and military spending. First, greater government accountability to citizens should have mixed effects on spending: reducing the component related to rent-seeking and inefficiency, but increasing the component that actually purchases the public good of national security. Second, the relationship between government accountability and spending should be contingent. In particular, we predict that higher national security risks and higher lagged military spending should raise current military spending by less when citizens can hold governments accountable. We test for these predictions in an encompassing model of military spending using global data covering more than 140 countries, and using several subjective and objective measures of accountability. Our results suggest that recent shifts towards democracy in the Arab world should not lead to a quick decline in military spending because only deeper forms of democracy seem to have an effect, particularly in view of the high external risks confronting countries in the region.

Suggested Citation

  • Ibrahim Ahmed Elbadawi & Philip Keefer, 2014. "Democracy, Democratic Consolidation and Military Spending," Working Papers 848, Economic Research Forum, revised Oct 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/848.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://bit.ly/2n5txs5
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong, 1989. "Defense Spending and Economic Growth in Subsaharan Africa: An Econometric Investigation," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 26(1), pages 79-90, February.
    2. Paul Dunne & Sam Perlo-Freeman, 2003. "The Demand for Military Spending in Developing Countries," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 23-48.
    3. Malcolm Knight & Norman Loayza & Delano Villanueva, 1996. "The Peace Dividend: Military Spending Cuts and Economic Growth," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 43(1), pages 1-37, March.
    4. Maizels, Alfred & Nissanke, Machiko K., 1986. "The determinants of military expenditures in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 1125-1140, September.
    5. de Mesquita, Bruce Bueno & Morrow, James D. & Siverson, Randolph M. & Smith, Alastair, 1999. "An Institutional Explanation of the Democratic Peace," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 93(4), pages 791-807, December.
    6. Julide Yildirim & Selami Sezgin, 2005. "Democracy and Military Expenditure: A Cross-Country Evidence," Transition Studies Review, Springer;Central Eastern European University Network (CEEUN), vol. 12(1), pages 93-100, July.
    7. Philip Keefer & Stephen Knack, 2007. "Boondoggles, Rent-Seeking, and Political Checks and Balances: Public Investment under Unaccountable Governments," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(3), pages 566-572, August.
    8. Scott D. Bennett & Allan C. Stam III, 1998. "The Declining Advantages of Democracy," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 42(3), pages 344-366, June.
    9. Robert E. Looney, 1989. "Internal and External Factors in Effecting Third World Military Expenditures," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 26(1), pages 33-46, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sajjad F. Dizaji & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, 2023. "Democracy and Militarization in Developing Countries: A Panel Vector Autoregressive Analysis," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 272-292, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Albalate, Daniel & Bel, Germà & Elias, Ferran, 2012. "Institutional determinants of military spending," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 279-290.
    2. Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke, 2002. "Military expenditure - threats, aid, and arms races," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2927, The World Bank.
    3. Seemab Gillani & Muhammad Nouman Shafiq & Tusawar Iftikhar Ahmad, 2019. "Military Expenditures and Health Outcomes: A Global Perspective," iRASD Journal of Energy and Environment, International Research Association for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 1(1), pages 1-20, June.
    4. Vincenzo Bove & Jennifer Brauner, 2016. "The demand for military expenditure in authoritarian regimes," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(5), pages 609-625, September.
    5. Seemab Gillani & Muhammad Nouman Shafiq & Tusawar Iftikhar Ahmad, 2019. "Military Expenditures and Health Outcomes: A Global Perspective," iRASD Journal of Economics, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 1(1), pages 1-20, June.
    6. Sajjad. F. Dizaji & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, 2018. "Do sanctions reduce the military spending in Iran?," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201831, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    7. Sajjad F. Dizaji & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, 2023. "Democracy and Militarization in Developing Countries: A Panel Vector Autoregressive Analysis," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 272-292, April.
    8. Do, Trung K., 2021. "Resource curse or rentier peace? The impact of natural resource rents on military expenditure," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Michael Horowitz & Dan Reiter, 2001. "When Does Aerial Bombing Work?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 45(2), pages 147-173, April.
    10. Yasmine M. Abdelfattah & Aamer S. Abu-Qarn & J. Paul Dunne & Shadwa Zaher, 2014. "The Demand for Military Spending in Egypt," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 231-245, June.
    11. James Lee Ray, 2001. "Integrating Levels of Analysis in World Politics," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 13(4), pages 355-388, October.
    12. Joshua Aizenman & Reuven Glick, 2006. "Military expenditure, threats, and growth," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 129-155.
    13. Jennifer Brauner, 2015. "Military spending and democracy," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 409-423, August.
    14. Joseph Keneck‐Massil & Iliassou Nkariepoun‐Njoya & Bernard Clery Nomo‐Beyala, 2024. "Does women's political empowerment matter in military spending?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 316-350, May.
    15. Nakao, Keisuke, 2022. "Democratic Victory and War Duration: Why Are Democracies Less Likely to Win Long Wars?," MPRA Paper 112849, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Nikolaos Mylonidis, 2008. "Revisiting The Nexus Between Military Spending And Growth In The European Union," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 265-272.
    17. J Paul Dunne & Mehmet Uye, 2009. "Military Spending and Development," Working Papers 0902, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    18. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Siew Ling Yew, 2018. "The effect of military expenditure on growth: an empirical synthesis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 1357-1387, November.
    19. Christopher Gelpi & Joseph M. Grieco, 2001. "Attracting Trouble," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 45(6), pages 794-817, December.
    20. Vincenzo Bove & Roberto Nisticò, 2014. "Coups d’état and defense spending: a counterfactual analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 321-344, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:848. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sherine Ghoneim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.