The Impact of Militarization on Well-Being

in the Third World

Ed Kick, Byron Davis, David Kiefer, and Tom Burns

Social Science Research 27, 1998: 351-370

This paper focuses upon contemporary linkages between militarization and development in Third World countries. The theoretical and empirical literature variously ascribes beneficial or pernicious developmental consequences to Third World militarization. Part of this ambiguity results from an empirical focus solely on the impacts of defense spending on growth in the gross national product. We expand the analysis to include three components of militarization (military regimes, participation in the military, and the importation of military hardware), as influences on three forms of national development (economic growth, accumulation of human capital, and growth in political rights). Our analysis employs regression techniques that identify and reduce the untoward consequences of a variety of conventional regression problems. We find that militarization significantly impacts development in Third World countries. Our findings are interpreted with an expanded world system/dependency perspective.