eli5 how martial law is bad for a country’s economy and growth?
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The general outlook is “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” You wouldn’t be declaring martial law if the regular police could do the job, so either your judicial/legal system is broken (meaning people will have less help if crimes are committed against them) or there is significant unrest in the area (more disruption, more potential conflict, more crime). Businesses and people tend to like predictability, so either of those situations are bad for business and/or consumer confidence.
Martial law is generally accompanied by various restrictions such as curfew and ID checks.
The basis of a nation’s economic growth is its production (business) and consumption (customers), during martial law, people aren’t going on a shopping spree. This directly affects business operations.
Generally fear and uncertainty also create hesitation in investments and regional development. No one wants to build houses during a storm, and thus most people will rather wait out martial law before resuming development. This in turn stunts the region’s growth.
Martial law is about control, it’s the entire point of it – that means everything slows down, and this hurts free flow of goods and services. Martial law also indicates a whole host of other problems in that it is typically a last resort bandaid option due to its negative effects on social morale and economy.
It isn’t necessarily. It’s normally enacted in response to mass chaos and violence, which already isn’t good for an economy. But you can have a military dictatorship under martial law grow an economy if that is their goal. After the Korean War, South Korea had a military coup with General Park Chung-hee taking over as ruthless dictator, declaring martial law. But he did stabilize the country, and there was massive economic growth under his rule.
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