ABSTRACT

Most people believe there is a tradeoff between spending on defense and spending on welfare (Russett 1982), but, as a number of scholars (e.g. Clayton 1976; Domke et al. 1983; Russett 1982) have shown,1 the existence of such a tradeoff is difficult to establish empirically. Prior analysis has centered on tradeoffs between total defense spending and specific kinds of welfare spending (e.g. health, education, housing). I examine tradeoffs between welfare spending and specific kinds of defense expenditures.