Doctoral Dissertation Research: Military Participation Ratios in the Advanced Industrial Societies

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This dissertation examines how a nation's defense posture influences its efforts and successes at achieving social policy objects. The maintenance of large standing armed forces amounts to a significant state intervention in labor market outcomes, influences the need for and commitments to public social programs, and confers the politically-salient status of "citizen" on large segments of the population. Despite such connections between military personnel policies and public policy, however, the military component of the welfare state has received little scholarly attention. The project addresses this gap by examining how the size of the military and the level of defense spending affect public spending for social security and family benefits. The data come from two sources: published figures from19 advanced industrial nations over the period of 1960-1994, and from national and state-level data for the United States over the period of 1945-1995.