Generals in defense of allocation: Coups and military budgets in Thailand

This paper investigates the effects of military coups d'état on government defense expenditure in Thailand using data from 1948 to 2015. The Thai military staged nine successful coups during this period, which allows an empirical inquiry in a single-country framework. Regression analyses of the defense budget reveal that successful coups result in large defense budget changes in the two years that follow. Among the three branches of the Thai armed forces, the army has gained the most in terms of budget allocations after coups relative to the navy and air force. This finding is consistent with the observation that the army has been the dominant force in the history of the military in the country. These results imply that coup leaders have made use of acquired executive power to direct more resources to their organizations.