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Bowman, Kirk S. Militarization, Democracy, and Development: ne Perils of Praetorianism in Latin America. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002. Figures, tables, abbreviations, bibliography, index, 289 pp.; hardcover $55.
In this book, Kirk Bowman identifies a puzzle in the literature on militaries, democratization, and economic development. While Latin Americanists generally agree that the existence of large militaries has a negative impact on democracy, economic growth, and equity, statistical studies on a global scale have found a positive relationship between the size of a nation's armed forces and economic development.
Bowman approaches this contradiction by asking "the simple question: are militaries from different regions of the world similar enough institutions" for such statistical procedures to give valid results (p. 186)? His answer is no. he argues that Latin American militaries are "qualitatively different" from those found in other regions (p. 38). In particular, he points to the internal focus of Latin American militaries, which have seen their fellow citizens as enemies and have taken it upon themselves to defend the nation from subversion. This orientation has led Latin American militaries to prevent the development of democratic institutions and the implementation of progressive economic policies. Militarization has had a different impact in other regions, Bowman argues, where the armed forces have had an external focus, emphasizing their role in defense against foreign powers.
Bowman addresses this problem on both the quantitative and the qualitative levels. The first, quantitative chapter examines the impact of militarization (measured by military spending as a percentage of gross domestic product and the number of soldiers for every one thousand inhabitants) on democratization (based on Freedom House reports) in Latin America. Not surprisingly, Bowman finds that both measures of militarization have "a substantial, highly significant and consistently negative effect on democracy" in the region (p. 59).
Two qualitative chapters follow, comparing the impact of militarization on democracy in Costa Rica and Honduras. Bowman's main argument is against observers who have portrayed the success in Costa Rica as somehow "predestined by colonial heritage, political culture, structural factors from the nineteenth century, or socioeconomic conditions in the 1950s" because such explanations imply that Costa Rica's decision to abolish its armed forces was not a crucial factor (p. 69).
Bowman demonstrates that Costa Rica had...