Buying for Armageddon: Factors influencing post-World War II weapons purchases since the Cuban Missile Crisis
The central problem of this study is the role that the economy and economic interests play in decisions about US weapons-systems acquisition. Despite a voluminous literature discussing the formation of military policy, journalistic accounts of business influence on military policy dominate the literature. A notable exception to this pattern is Griffin, Devine, and Wallace's use of time-series data on military expenditures to assess Baran and Sweezy's thesis that military expenditures are necessary to the good health of the monopoly sector of the US economy. Using similar techniques and an expanded data set, the effect of business political action and major economic forces on the quantity and types of weapons purchased since the Cuban Missile Crisis are investigated. Findings indicate that defense contractor rates of profit have a positive relationship to procurement expenditures of most types. This is opposite of the effect posited by most of the literature. Elite political mobilization, measured by the activity of the Committee on the Present Danger, a group at the core of the New Right Social Movement, has a positive effect on expenditures.
- Research Organization:
- Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 5180467
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
FEDERAL EXPENDITURES
ECONOMIC IMPACT
USA
MILITARY STRATEGY
WEAPONS
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
DATA ANALYSIS
DECISION MAKING
TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
MATHEMATICS
NORTH AMERICA
450000* - Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense