| This study examined factors and processes contributing to militarization in The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone from the colonial period to 1985.;It drew from open systems organizational change theory and the literature on the military to study the development of a national institution in West Africa. Militarization was investigated as a dimension of power shifts and bureaucratic growth. Military rule, armed force size and military expenditures were used as indicators of militarization. Historical methods and regression analyses were used to evaluate a proposed model of militarization with Gross Domestic Product (GDP), foreign exchange, exports, ethnic composition, national security concerns, temporal factors, leadership ideology, unemployment and urbanization as independent variables. This model was investigated using a computerized data base.;Military rule was related to recruiting policy, professionalization and limited mobility for officers. Civil-military relations, limited national integration and political consensus, population growth, concentration of military and communication facilities in cities also affected military rule. Statistically, military rule had no significant association with the independent variables.;Armed force size was not determined in all countries by the same independent variables. In every country, GDP had statistically significant association with armed force size. In the aggregate, GDP, export earnings and military expenditures had positive and statistically significant association with armed force size. National security concerns, temporal factors, and military rule had no statistically significant relationships with armed force size.;Military expenditures varied among countries. In the aggregate, military expenditures were positively influenced by armed force size, military rule and export earnings, but negatively related to GDP and unemployment.;Revised models of militarization were constructed based on these findings, and also questions for future research such as is militarization affected by other independent variables; how do specific national histories affect militarization; and what factors are related to civilianization?... |
