Military Regimes

Abstract

The military regime is no longer the exception amongst the governmental forms of the Third World — it has risen almost to the status of a rule. Indeed, it is virtually impossible to maintain an up-to-date record of military coups. Luttwak (1968) observes that, for the period 1946–67, there were fourteen successful coups in the thirty-five independent African nations — successful in the sense that a military government was established — eight in the twenty-one countries of Asia, fourteen in the twenty-two countries of Latin America, and two in the eight Middle Eastern countries. Since 1967, there has been a progressive escalation in the frequency of intervention; Finer (1975) records forty-one successful coups for the period 1968-75, possibly the most significant being those in Uganda (1971), Chile (1973), Portugal (1974), Chad, Nigeria and Bangladesh (1975).¹ The coup in Thailand (1976) is just one example of an intervention since Finer wrote his paper. Given this increasing prevalence of military governments, it seems pertinent to ask — what is likely to happen to defence expenditure and economic development when the military seizes political power?