The Political Economy of Military Base Redevelopment

The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process has been through five rounds since 1988 and resulted in the closure of 121 major military bases. The design of BRAC tied the hands of Congress and limited political influences over bases chosen for closure. However, researchers have overlooked political economy issues related to the evolution of BRAC and of base redevelopment after a base is slated for closure. This paper fills this gap by examining the post-closure process, emphasizing the epistemic limitations facing political actors in designing the redevelopment process to achieve economic prosperity and the incentives this creates for rent-seeking.