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The Defence Burden

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The Political Economy of Soviet Defence Spending

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Abstract

Estimates of Soviet defence outlays calculated in rubles, more than in any other currency, replicate the sort of economic infomation available to ministers and planners when they decide on the allocation of resources between competing claimants. In conjunction with other ruble data, they provide a metric of the dimensions of the burden which military spending imposes on society, and the relative social priority of end use allocations. Western estimates suggest that by 1985 the Soviet Union directly allocated 15 per cent to 17 per cent of the nation’s resources to military-related activities, proportionately far greater than for that of any other developed country. If the output of the industrial branches which are related to military production are also included, defence, widely defined, may appropriate up to 30 to 40 per cent of Soviet GNP.1

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK

    R. T. Maddock (Senior Lecturer in International Politics)

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  1. R. T. Maddock
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© 1988 R. T. Maddock

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Maddock, R.T. (1988). The Defence Burden. In: The Political Economy of Soviet Defence Spending. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08271-1_3

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