ABSTRACT
AN important element of most strategies of development is to depress the ratio of consumption to gross national product in order to release a rising fraction of resources for capital formation. The Turkish Five-Year Development Plan, 1963-67, projected a decline in the consumption ratio of nearly one percentage point per year, i.e. from 87·6 per cent in 1962 to 83·4 per cent in 1967.1 Judged by the standard of accomplishments in other developing countries, this planned reduction in the consumption ratio was exceptionally rapid. Yet it was central to the Turkish strategy of development that a reallocation of this magnitude be accomplished. Similar strategies of reallocation undoubtedly will appear in future plans as well. It is timely, therefore, to examine the historical pattern of allocation and, in particular, to compare allocations to development with those made to military activities. The state has exercised a determinative influence over both and each has been crucial in bringing Turkey to the threshold of self-sustaining economic advance.
