“Guns vs Butter” or “Guns Yield Butter”: Government Ideology and Military Spending

Military spending is a very significant and highly scrutinized aspect of government policy, because it epitomizes the complex interaction of issues regarding national defense, economic interests, and political ideology. Decisions to allocate resources in favor of defense over competing needs in other sectors such as social welfare, education, or infrastructure are not made based on perceived threats but are so significantly conditioned by the ideology of the ruling party. This article provides a summarized analysis of the impact of government ideology on military spending by referring to various academic research with a great variety of empirical data.

Ideological Influence on Military Spending

A government’s ideology does certainly matter to what extent resource allocation is affected by military spending, but the size or shape of this influence does largely depend on the general and wider economic and geopolitical environment.

Left-Wing Governments: Social Welfare Over Defense

Governmental policies of left leaning persuasion necessarily emphasize social security, job security and even economic equality, rather than military expenditure. Such disposition is most always…