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Attention Deficits: Why Politicians Ignore Defense Policy in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

David Pion-Berlin  and
Harold Trinkunas
David Pion-Berlin
Affiliation:
University of California at Riverside
Harold Trinkunas
Affiliation:
Naval Postgraduate School
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Abstract

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Interest in defense issues among Latin American politicians has faded with the advent of widespread democratization in the region and the retreat of the armed forces to their barracks. Defense policy is rarely subject to the same level of public scrutiny and debate as other major policy issues faced by the region, such as health, education, and public safety. This is puzzling because by ignoring defense policy, civilian leaders in the region risk ceding authority to their militaries, allowing them a degree of self-management and undermining the consolidation of democratic civilian control of the armed forces. This article explains civilian politicians' inattention to defense as a function of three factors: a historical path that has produced armed forces with limited capabilities that are more often a threat to their own governments than their neighbors; a relatively benign international threat environment in Latin America that makes neglect of defense policy a low-risk proposition; and the low importance that voters assign to the provision of the national defense as either a public or a private good. Under these circumstances, it is rational for most civilian politicians to ignore defense policy and focus their attention instead on coup avoidance.

Resumen

Resumen

El interés que los políticos latinoamericanos tienen acerca de los temas de defensa ha disminuido con la democratización de la región y el regreso de las fuerzas armadas a sus cuarteles. Las políticas de defensa rara vez causan el nivel de debate público que provocan otras políticas importantes para la región, tales como salud, educación y seguridad ciudadana. Esto es desconcertante ya que al ignorar la política de defensa, el liderazgo civil cede autoridad a los militares, permitiéndoles un grado de auto-gestión que puede socavar la consolidación de la conducción civil sobre las fuerzas armadas. Este artículo explica la falta de atención de políticos civiles a la defensa en función de tres factores: un desarrollo histórico que ha debilitado a las fuerzas armadas dejándolas con capacidades limitadas que, frecuentemente, son una mayor amenaza para sus propios gobiernos que para los de sus vecinos; un ambiente internacional mas bien benigno que disminuye el riesgo de la falta de atención a la defensa en América Latina; y la baja importancia que los electores asignan a la defensa nacional como bien público o privado. Bajo estas circunstancias, ignorar la política de defensa es racional para la mayoría de los políticos civiles, los cuales limitan su atención a evitar golpes de estado.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , October 2007 , pp. 76 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the University of Texas Press

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