Ashraf Ghani Talk at TED

What is needed to make a 21st century state

• A consensus of what are the essential functions of the modern state. He argues that there are 10.
• He argues that index of the quality of those functions.

Ten essential functions of the state

1. Legitimate monopoly of the means of violence
2. Administrative control
3. Management of public finances through wealth creation and involvement of the citizenry in taxation and redistribution
4. Investment in human capital
5. Provision of citizenship rights through national social policies
6. Provision of infrastructure
7. Management of the tangible and intangible assets of the state through regulation
8. Creation of the Market
9. International agreements, including public borrowing
10. Provision of rule of law, including the subjection of the stat to the rule of law.

The types of capital required

• Physical capital
• Institutional capital
• Human capital
• Social Capital
• Financial capital
• Security capital
• Information capital

The planning for post WWII Germany was done in Oxford in 1943.
Infrastructure takes 6 years.
Countries that have a legal average income of over 1000 USD per cap do not produce drugs.
The US should give a 0% tariff to Afghanistan.
When you compare growing cotton or growing opium, it is more profitable to grow cotton but if you compare making tee shirts with opium. It is more profitable to make tee shirts.
They want global access. They want the patou system of northern italy. The aid system is broken.
A dollar of investment can equal 20 dollars of aid. The aid dollar can be worth between 10 cents and 4 dollars.

Some of this will be a book by him: Ashraf Ghani is the former Finance Minister of Afghanistan, and a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations. He's an expert on the economics of developing nations and post-conflict reconstruction.