Scientific Underpinnings of - START - National Consortium for the ...

Administrative Control
When a state is managed by a competitively recruited professional cadre, administrative control
is achieved by organizing a state’s functions and spatial territory via a unified body of rules and
practices and a hierarchy of administrative units performing specialized functions.
Sound Management of Public Finances
Public goals can only be achieved through sound management of public finances. The budget
acts as a lens through which hard decisions are made about competing priorities so that resources
are allocated to translate aspirations into outcomes. Without effective systems for collecting and
allocating revenues, the state will be unable to deliver services adequately.
Investments in Human Capital
Stability depends on forging paths of upward social mobility and creating stakeholders in the
future. Such investments are the key to building domestic capacity across the full spectrum of
state and market activity, and as human capital becomes more important than other forms of
capital, public investment in building human capital becomes increasingly important.
Creation of Citizenship Rights through Social Policy
Creating stability within the state means overcoming fragmented identities and a politics defined
by zero-sum competition for control over resources by competing groups. Social policy geared to
equality of opportunity, rights and responsibilities—cutting across gender, ethnicity, race, class,
spatial location, and religion—can overcome this divisiveness and weave a social fabric of
national unity and a sense of shared destiny.
Provision of Infrastructure Services
In order to provide security, administration, investment in human capital, and support to the
market economy is the need for adequate transportation, power, water, communications and
pipelines. Exploring and harnessing regional potential in infrastructure can not only create
efficiencies, but can also create virtuous webs of cooperation and closer ties between states.
Formation of a Market
The state has critical roles to fulfill in creation and expansion of the market. It sets and enforces
the rules for commercial activity, supports the operation and development of private enterprise,
and intervenes at times of market failure.
Management of Public Assets
The state wields an immense variety of public assets, including fixed assets like land and
buildings, to natural capital, to intangible assets such as the licensing of businesses. These assets
can be put to work to achieve tremendous collective benefits to citizens. Managing these
processes by defining legal frameworks, conferring rights, regulating and arbitrating, are key
tasks for the state to fulfill in this regard.
Effective Public Borrowing
Effective public borrowing enables investments in human, physical, institutional, and social
capital. If made wisely, such investments can more than pay back the debts incurred. On the
other hand, poor decisions can lead to debt crisis. The ability to steward borrowing effectively is
therefore a key element of state effectiveness and stability.
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