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War Making and State Making: Governmental Expenditures, Tax Revenues, and Global Wars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1985

Karen A. Rasler  and
William R. Thompson
Karen A. Rasler
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
William R. Thompson
Affiliation:
Claremont Graduate School
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Abstract

Addressing the disputed relationship between war and the expansion of governmental expenditures and revenues, Box-Tiao intervention models are applied to a number of British (1700-1980), United States (1792-1980), French (1815-1979), and Japanese (1878-1980) spending and taxation series. Distinguishing between global and interstate wars, the more intensive and extensive bouts of warfare (global wars) tend to bring about abrupt, permanent impacts in contrast to the temporary changes associated with most interstate wars. The observed displacements are reflected in both war-related and nonwar-related types of expenditure and are also observed before 1900. Although our findings are not universally applicable and are subject to various other qualifications, they may be interpreted, in general, as reinforcing the need for an appreciation of the persistent centrality of war, especially global war, in the discontinuous growth and expansion of the modern state.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 491 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1985

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