DeROUNEN, Karl <br/><br/>
Modernization and the militray in Latin America 

 -  2001 
<br/><br/> In the 1950s modernization began to be an important paradigm for Latin american development. Early modernization therory depicted the economies of Latin America as traditionaland underdeveloped. The theme of thecnological progress runs consistently through the modernization model. The purpose of this article  is to assess en important question raised by Latin American development studies: that large allocations for the military sector are conducive to economic growth in Latin America. While this modernization literature is somewhat dated, many recent  quatnitative studies have also show positive economic benefits from defense spdnding in the  Third World. The added revelavance here is that our model captures technological progress. After controlling for technological progress and externalities, our analysis whos that military portion fo budgets en Labim America have actually hindered modernization. We discuss these findings in trms of regime type and levels of US  military aid to the region