Why national defense depends on education and infrastructure

Does a right-sized government invite authoritarianism, and can national defense be separated from education and infrastructure?

The size-of-government debate belongs mainly to democratic politics, while credible defense still requires education, industry, ports, transport, and enough state capacity to sustain them.

Small versus large government is primarily a democratic debate here, since authoritarian governments seldom wait for principled permission to expand their power. A bloated state can create work to sustain itself, yet a state limited to territorial defense still needs civilian capacity. Modern armed forces depend on educated people to research, build, maintain, and crew their weapons. Factories, ports, transport links, and other infrastructure turn those skills into usable military power. Those assets also need protection from states willing to seize them. The practical question is how much government a country's circumstances require.