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U.S. Defense Spending and the Soviet Estimate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Charles W. Ostrom Jr.  and
Robin F. Marra
Charles W. Ostrom Jr.
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Robin F. Marra
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Abstract

There is a glaring and potentially important discontinuity surrounding discussions of U.S. defense expenditure policy making. On the one hand, a growing body of empirically-based research questions whether the U.S. reacts in any significant fashion to the military expenditures of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, defense policy makers routinely justify defense increases as a response to similar increases by the Soviet Union. The discontinuity is resolved in the context of a multistep model of the defense expenditure policy-making process that incorporates a new estimate of Soviet defense spending and mass public opinion. Once formulated, the model provides answers to the following two questions: (1) Does the U.S., insofar as defense spending is concerned, react to the military expenditures of the Soviet Union? (2) If so, what is the magnitude of the reaction? The answers indicate that not only does the U.S. react to estimated Soviet defense spending, but that the reaction is directly responsible for a very substantial portion of the post-1978 increases in U.S. military expenditures.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 80 , Issue 3 , September 1986 , pp. 819 - 842
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1986

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