Military Keynesianism

Military Keynesianism is an economic policy based on the position that government should raise military spending to boost economic growth. It is a fiscal stimulus policy as advocated by John Maynard Keynes. But where Keynes advocated increasing public spending on socially useful items (infrastructure in particular), additional public spending is allocated to the arms industry, the area of defense being that over which the executive exercises greater discretionary power. Typical examples of such policies are Nazi Germany, or the United States during and after World War II, during the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. This type of economy is linked to the interdependence between welfare and warfare states, in which the latter feeds the former, in a potentially unlimited spiral. The term is often used pejoratively to refer to politicians who apparently reject Keynesian economics, but use Keynesian arguments in support of excessive military spending.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ Custers, Peter (2010). "Military Keynesianism today: an innovative discourse". Race & Class. 51 (4). Institute of Race Relations: 79–94. doi:10.1177/0306396810363049. S2CID 154824097.
  2. ^ Veronique de Rugy (December 2012). "Military Keynesians". Reason Magazine. Reason Foundation. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  3. ^ Krugman, Paul (2009-06-24). "Weaponized Keynesianism". New York Times. Retrieved 26 January 2015.