An Essay on the Successful State

An essay on

The Successful State Its premises, conditions and general principles By Mohamed Barani 0

Index Index ...............................................................................................................1 Preface ............................................................................................................4

Table of Contents 1. The Successful State ....................................................................................8 1.1 The successful State .................................................................................. 8

2. The Basics of the Stable State .................................................................... 11 2.1 The four factors of a stable state ............................................................. 11 2.2 The two factors for maintaining the stable state ..................................... 14 2.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 15

3. The Road to Prosperity .............................................................................. 16 3.1 Justice ..................................................................................................... 16 3.2 Peace ....................................................................................................... 24 3.3 Knowledge............................................................................................... 27 3.4 Food ........................................................................................................ 33 3.5 Final conclusion ....................................................................................... 34

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4. On the Subject of Wealth .......................................................................... 35 4.1 Definition of wealth and where it comes from ........................................ 35 4.2 To increase wealth .................................................................................. 38 4.3 The factors of production ........................................................................ 39 4.4 Applied on the food factor ...................................................................... 42 4.5 The market .............................................................................................. 45 4.6 Investment .............................................................................................. 46 4.7 Spreading the wealth .............................................................................. 47 4.8 More knowledge and production ............................................................ 49

5. What Else? ................................................................................................ 50 5.1 Poverty: of the second degree................................................................. 51

6. Maintaining Prosperity .............................................................................. 53 6.1 Strength .................................................................................................. 53 6.2 Unity........................................................................................................ 55 6.3 Opposition to unity ................................................................................. 58

7. Traps and Challenges ................................................................................. 60 7.1 Legitimacy ............................................................................................... 60 7.2 Loans ....................................................................................................... 61 7.3 Brain Drain .............................................................................................. 63 7.4 Lack of market, purchasing power and investment ................................. 64 2

8. The Nation of Successia ............................................................................. 65 8.1 Phase one ................................................................................................ 65 8.2 Phase two ................................................................................................ 74 8.3 Summary ................................................................................................. 75

9. Summary and Conclusion .......................................................................... 77

Bibliography .................................................................................................. 79 Register ......................................................................................................... 81

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In the name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful

Preface by Mohamed Barani: All praise to Allah the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings on his final messenger. I witness that there is no god but Allah and that Mohammad is his slave and messenger.

This book will aim to gather common factors present in countries considered successful.

It will try to explore and explain the causal relation between these factors and success. It also presents its own meaning of what a successful state is and thereby also tries to be normative.

It is meant to be read by both the layman and the expert but mostly by politicians, policymakers and other people that are politically active or involved in governance of some sort.

This book is intended to provide general guidelines and then systematically compose them so as to present a coherent theory on the successful state. It is composed of a theoretical and practical part.

The theoretical part discusses the descriptive part; common denominators of successful states and the conditions required to achieve a successful state. Without this theoretical part no state can be successful. The practical part is a little less ambitious and pretentious. It merely discusses a way by which these theoretical parts can be achieved practically and thus combined so as to reach the successful state. The practical part is therefore not universal but more my way of presenting a possible way to apply the theoretical part.

These parts are not written explicitly or separate but it is still useful to know that the book is composed of these two parts. To achieve the successful state there are, for example, some theoretical factors which this state is composed of such as Justice. Before the journey begins towards achieving these factors there is a factor that cannot be achieved outside itself. This is the political will. It can rarely be obtained outside itself, unlike Justice, which other people can impose. As this book is intended for people with a political will to achieve something like a successful state, there will be no need to explain how political will would be acquired.

Although it may sound pretentious, extremely ambitious and even utopian to try and describe a theory by which to achieve a successful state, I believe that it is not. This is because I am not describing a utopia. I intend only to describe the premises and conditions which I have found in successful states and to describe conditions if present in a state would 4

make it be considered successful (theoretical part). Then I intend only to provide general guidelines which a country can follow in order to be successful (practical part). Also, what I mean by a successful state is not one where all citizens have two cars, a duplex-villa and three servants. I think that if you apply the factors to any state and all of them are achieved, then you could consider that a good and successful state. The successful state is a state which carries out basic state functions.

I chose this title for the book as an opposite of the term failed state, which is a state lacking the basic infrastructure to uphold regular government activities. The successful state on the other hand is a state which executes its functions as a state and therefore I am also going to present the state´s/government´s tasks. These are in turn dependent on various factors and conditions and these are prerequisites for the state to be able to fulfill its tasks. The tasks are going to be presented jointly as they all pretty much have the same prerequisites. Also, these prerequisites fall under two main categories and these are the factors for a stable state and the factors of production with both of them being complementary. This is because the factors of production are required to achieve some of the factors for a stable state. The stable state is in turn able to create the conditions for an increase in the production factors. When these two prerequisite categories have reached a suitable level the state will be able to move on to fulfill its tasks. Therefore the book will discuss in-depth of how to increase the production factors and the various obstacles against production as well as the factors of a stable state. This book therefore provides the framework or, in other words, the groundwork and foundation on which the successful state is then built. How the state then exactly proceeds to fulfill its tasks is too wide ranging and specific to be dealt with and will only be dealt with in a general manner.

To achieve the two prerequisites for a successful state there is also a need for money and material prosperity which is achieved through a stable state and production. There are many ideologies claiming a monopoly on how to achieve material prosperity but my ideas are neither ideological nor am I claiming that this is the only way. I will attempt to only provide the conditions and premises for the successful state. Also, the bottom line of my ideas is actually to go with that which works, i.e. not worrying about the privatization or nationalization of companies because of ideology. If the former works then fine, and if the latter works even better, and then go with that one as long as this does not contradict either one of the two prerequisites for a successful state. Another difference with my ideas is that they also offer a reason for the need of economic growth and I therefore do not consider 5

economic growth itself as having a very large intrinsic value. In this book the economics is only a means by which to reach an end. To highlight this specific point is important because many ideologies have focused on the material part yet forgot other aspects of human existence and governance.

Although economics are important to human existence and governance, it is not the only aspect. In fact, economic activity is what begets all other types of activity; political, cultural, social etc. Economic activity on all its levels aims to make it possible to have political, cultural and social activities. Universally, all cultures denounce having money for the sake of money itself and it is considered a very negative trait to want that. States want strong economies in order to provide for its citizens in areas such as education, security, healthcare, and infrastructure and so on. This is the same for families who want money in order to provide for their members basic needs in addition to recreation, entertainment and so on.

I hope that this book will encourage leaders to consider economic growth as a means rather than as an end and that the state´s tasks will entail the ends. Although I admit that the tasks of the state I have outlined might seem arbitrary, although I have tried to explain as much of these tasks and their necessity as possible, I don‟t think many would disagree on the tasks themselves or even their respective priorities. But as this is also a normative book, I consider a successful state a state which is performing these tasks.

So essentially I will outline what the state´s tasks are, their respective priorities and prerequisites and how to go about fulfilling these tasks. This book is not intended to address how a state specifically and practically should/could address a certain “task” as the solutions will differ radically from country to country, and as technology advances, these problems will be solved differently. But I will also herein provide for some general principles for how a task could be carried out.

I also hope this book will shed a new perspective on economics which has been completely ideology-dominated and dogmatic. I hope people will understand that the principles of the state´s tasks are not that difficult, even though realizing the principles can be difficult.

An important assumed factor not present in the book is that there is no foreign intervention to halt a given countries process to fulfil its tasks and the respective prerequisites of these tasks. The assumption is not a conjuration or something arbitrarily done without grounds yet is rather considered in another factor discussed later in the book.

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There are two chapters where I will summarize the process; how much of it has been achieved and how much is remaining. Also, in the conclusion of the book, there will be a greater clarification for anyone who is still unsure.

I hope this book will be beneficial for all people. If something is incorrect in the book it is from me, if something is good and correct in it, it is from the help of Allah. I hope, even if large parts of the book are completely refuted, that the rest will be good and beneficial. Also, as a writer I of course apologize beforehand if there is anything completely unclear or clearly incorrect.

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Chapter One: the Successful State

The successful State

For this book to be useful and for the rest of the book to make sense we will first need to define the successful state. There are many problems to this as there are many different theories on the purpose and meaning of the state. This attitude to the purpose of the state does much to define the successful state. Because once the state fulfills its purpose, it is successful.

Now the even bigger problem of the purpose and meaning of the state arises. To find an answer to this question we need to look at both the origins of the state and its present condition.

States and governments arose to regulate the interaction of large numbers of people. The state´s job was to settle differences and disputes, ensure justice, uphold laws and defend against foreign aggression. Without government, human existence would be an animal-like existence where a notion of the survival of the fittest prevails. But note that even in some states there exists a state of survival of the fittest. But the difference with having no government at all would be guaranteed chaos, whereas even in the most brutal governments some kind of stability exists.1 Therefore, most people (exception anarchists) agree that some kind of government is desirable, the extent of which the disagreements are all the bigger.

Because of the inclination of abusing government powers, some people argue that the government should be restricted to only preserving justice, order and security.

When looking at the original purpose of the state this seems reasonable. As human societies grew larger and more complex, there arose a need of something larger and more complex that an individual - and that is the state. The same arguments that are chosen to argue for a night-watchman state as it is called could be used to argue for the state being involved in other matters also. If the argument for a night-watchman state is that we need a neutral party which can settle disputes and differences concerning cases of injustice or to protect people, then the same could be said about healthcare, education and infrastructure. There is a need to 1

E. Uddhammar, (red). Civilisationernas kamp, ScandBook AB, Stockholm, 1993, pp. 103-106.

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standardize and set a minimum level of standard for these aspects of life to be functional and these aspects, or most of them, need to be functional in order to preserve life. If one looks at what aspects of human existence that needs a “superindividual” body to regulate it, they are, more or less these: law and order, education, healthcare, infrastructure and protection against separate interests. All these also fall under what we can call public interest. Separate interests are when, for example, corporations dump toxic waste. It is in their interest to dump the toxic waste but it is against the public interest. I do not define a separate interest when a company wants to profit but when it wants to dump toxic waste in a lake I count it as a separate interest.

So the state arose because of the need to organize human co-existence and provide safety from other people, whether they were from the same society or not. And as human existence grew more complex, the machinery that organized human existence grew more complex and more centralization was needed. Eventually societies grew so large and complex that there arose a need for something bigger than the individual to regulate, control and organize the new complex phenomena. From this that is the story of the state, we can extract the purpose and meaning of the state.

Among the first and most prioritized purposes and meanings of the state is the safety and security of its citizens. To achieve this, most states have set up an armed force, a police force, intelligence services and possibly alliances. Proving the “basicness” of this point is that this is what states and governments have been up to since the dawn of states and governments.

Included in security and safety, according to me, is also the elimination of poverty. The degrees and severity and priority of poverty will be discussed in a later chapter. But for now it is enough to know that poverty is lethal and removes much needed stability and safety for the citizens. Healthcare also has the same effects as poverty and is therefore also included. This is because disease and sickness is something that may hurt citizens to a great extent and cause fear. This means that it is up to the state to not only provide preventative healthcare by, for example, forbidding toxic waste etc. but also to provide adequate healthcare. The state´s job is not only to safeguard citizens from others humans or organisms, yet also from themselves and therefore traffic rules, speed limits and improved and safe infrastructure could also be included among the state´s priorities.

If safety and security is the number one priority of the government, then justice is number zero. The safety and security point can be taken to extreme lengths if there is no justice to keep the security measures and precautions at a balance. The point of safety and security is to 9

make citizens feel safe and secure, but these measures would be made void were there not justice, because oneâ€&#x;s right and safety would not be guaranteed. Also, among the original purposes of the state was for it to be a neutral part which could settle disputes, ensure justice, uphold laws and preserve life.

The third point that a state has to do is to provide for an education. Education is what makes citizens productive and ready to contribute to the society´s advancement. Education is also needed for the knowhow of the previous point. This would include the education of diplomats, training of soldiers, police officers, doctors, nurses, teachers and the maintaining knowledge level when it comes to, for example, toxins and pathogen microorganisms. If a necessary state task cannot be completed without another task, then that latter task is also necessary.

Education is a prime example of something that needs a national guide. In ancient times there was no need for general education as the division of labour was simple and (at least in Europe) specialization was taught through practical experience. But as specialization grew and the division of labour differentiated more, there arose a need for general education. There was also a need for a neutral part to set guidelines as to what to teach, how to teach, certify diplomas and so on. Whether schools should be privatized or not is another question but my main point is that there is a need for a national guideline, curriculum and inspection to ensure high and similar quality and a unification of education.

So the state´s tasks according to its present condition are: 0. Justice 0.1.Protection against private interests.

1. Safety & security 1.1.Eliminating mortal poverty 1.2.Healthcare 1.3.Infrastructure 2. Education

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Chapter Two: the Basics of the Stable State

There were is in total seven points in the successful state. And some are, as one can see, more expensive than others. How to go about achieving these points? To be a successful state one first has to be a stable state. Before we examine what the stable state is and how to get there, we first need to examine why one first needs to be a stable state.

The state can be good because of its great capability to organize large groups of people and thereby achieve larger effects then would be possible individually. The state though would not be able to do this if it is not a stable state. Then the purpose of the state could not be achieved and it would not be a good or successful state. You will see that some of the prerequisites for the stable state correspond with some of the successful state´s tasks, and the stable state could thus be said to correlate to the order in which the successful state is to be achieved, because there is no successful state without a stable state.

The stable state is the state that has achieved four points or factors. These are Justice and Peace, which also correspond to state task numbers: 0, 0.1 and 1, and Knowledge (which corresponds to number 2), and Food which is a part of state task number 1.1. This means that although the priorities of the state have a hierarchy, the achievement of these points have a different hierarchy. More detail on the stable state will be provided in chapter three. But even the stable or basic state needs something else in addition to a political will and a little stability to be able to achieve at least the last two points, and this is financial means or wealth. Justice and Peace can be achieved using existing means and they might also result in additional funds. But Knowledge and Food are in need of investments which will come from remaining means and from increased wealth discussed in the fourth chapter.

The four factors of a stable state In this section I will explain the different factors with which a country attains one of the prerequisites for the successful state; the stable state. I will explain what the factors are and a 11

preliminary definition of my meaning of the word. Also explained is why this factor is a factor, and why it is needed. This is only a short version of the factors meant to be an introduction to the details following in chapter three. The theory of the stable state builds upon four factors.

The first of them is: Justice. A nation must (with special emphasis on must) be just and uncorrupted to be a successful and stable. A nation with widely spread fear, distrust, corruption and injustice will experience its citizen‟s morale and productivity as low as they can be. Production and funds are lost to corruption in an unjust society. Corruption will often become the norm for all layers of society. Also, too much injustice will seriously increase the risk of revolt and revolution, plunging the nation into chaos. Justice also ensures the continued prosperity of a nation. Nations with tyrants or unjust rulers will seldom find themselves developing, partly because of the costs required to keep the rulers in power and partly because such rulers rarely care about the prosperity of their nation or because of their open suppression of development. Also, such ruling elites rarely want individuals with high ambitions and goals. They often want people that cannot think outside the box and follow blindly and such people cannot contribute to the advancement of their society. 2 Having a just society will have the opposite effects - with empowered, honourable citizens having good work morals and productivity. Having such a society will make citizens proud to be a part of such a society and thus contribute to it willingly and thereby, by ensuring the productivity of the citizens, this ensures the advancement of the given society.3 This factor mentioned above differ from the other factors in that it doesn‟t require any of the other factors except maybe that the country is in a state of peace, and is not occupied or invaded, and is therefore after the factor of Peace recommended as a starting point on a country´s way to prosperity - and fortunately most countries are usually at peace.

2

B. B. de Mesquita, A. Smith. The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics.

Public Affairs, New York, 2011.

3

The opposite can also be illustrated by game theory. In a society with widespread corruption, corruption won‟t

cease even if everyone in this society knows that corruption is wrong. That is because the cost for the first one to cease with corruption is great relative to those who don‟t. For more on this issue see Fumiko Nagano´s article: Corruption, Game Theory, and Rational Irrationality, 2009.

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The second factor is Peace. Besides the obvious need for peace, Peace is useful in other ways.

To keep everything a nation has worked for, it needs peace as we can see in the example of Nazi Germany and Saddam´s Iraq. Both nations were advanced and somewhat prosperous but were ravaged with war.4 Peace ensures that production means are not used to produce products without any individual utility by only having the capacity to destroy. Peace makes a country stronger not only in its preservation of production and industrial capacity, but also in making it able to build up strength. Another benefit peace begets is that long-term peace evolves to unity and cooperation as in the example of USA and Canada. A peaceful country will not likely by disturbed or looked upon suspiciously by the world community as it grows economically. This is the factor I assumed earlier will reduce the risk of foreign intervention or the risk of a regime starting a war. In the concept of Peace I have decided to also include freedom. Some degree of freedom is a must to achieve prosperity, as freedom does not keep the individuals in the nation from attaining personal success. Success can be in business, such as starting a successful company or in science, discovering new, unknown things and inventions.

The third factor is Food, which is pretty obvious. Yet besides the obvious reasons, an excess of food means that a population can devote their life to things other than food. An excess of food also leads to cheap food, meaning money, manpower and materials can be spent on other things. Amongst other things, money, manpower and materials could be spent on improving general education for the broad masses and building homes and other public work projects.

To get food, knowledge is needed in the form of knowhow and technology. Knowhow is needed in knowing how the land is best used and what to grow and when and so forth, and the technology in making it easier - fertilizers so as to reap a greater harvest and various machines in making the reaping process quicker.

The fourth factor is Knowledge. Any nation wanting to prosper needs knowledge and by knowledge I also mean technology. Knowledge is produced by passing on the wisdom and experience from the older generations to the younger and adding more wisdom and experience to be passed on to the third generation which is basically what all educational

4

M. Khan, ‘Iraq Between Pain and Power’, 8 August 2001, viewed on 4 February 2012,

<http://www.glocaleye.org/saddam.html>. (Note the text was published even before the 2003 Iraq war)

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institutions strive for, generation to generation. And with this being said, the principle is very clear: it is correct to learn, even from the enemy.

Knowledge is also needed for knowhow when it comes to, among other things, industries.

Education is very important because it gives individuals an equal chance, no matter their background. There is also an interesting reform concerning the educational system which I will highlight more in-depth later on. This has to do with the globalization at hand and the increasing specialization that we are facing.

Anyway, without this factor prosperity will never be achieved. The closest thing a county can come to, pertaining to development without knowledge, is status quo. The factor of knowledge is the cornerstone of prosperity. Knowledge must be one of the factors that is fully acquired because many of the other factors and sub-factors are based on this one. Knowledge not only teaches how, when and where, yet it also stimulates individuals, who make up the society, to widen their views and self-develop. As a soldierâ&#x20AC;&#x;s weapon is his gun, a civilianâ&#x20AC;&#x;s weapon is indeed his knowledge.

The two factors for maintaining the stable state The factors listed above are necessary to be able to achieve the stable state. Besides maintaining these factors, two new ones are required to be able to maintain the stable state.

As with the first factors, the introduction will explain mostly what is meant by the factor and why it is needed. These two factors are of secondary importance in relation to the first four.

The first of these factors is Strength. By strength, military capacity and capability is meant.

As said earlier, knowledge is very important and it is so also a part of a nationâ&#x20AC;&#x;s goal to produce strength. Knowing the best tactics, knowing how to produce the best equipment and so forth. What we can learn from history is that a smaller army of well-trained, welldisciplined and well-equipped men with the sound use of tactics can beat an army with over ten times the number. This is the example of Finland and Germany against the USSR although their numbers eventually overwhelmed the Axis. The British against the Zulu and against the Italians in North Africa are other examples. Perhaps the best known example is how the Greeks made use of the terrain and superior tactics and morale in the battle of

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Thermopylae. A massively outnumbered group of Greeks delayed an enemy army with more than ten-fold the numbers and caused disproportional number of casualties.5 Also, the most important factor for a nation is to see what kind of combat scenario that has the highest probability of happening. For example, the Swedes can count on fighting in the forest, the Afghans, in the mountains and the Vietnamese in the jungle. One also has to calculate the most probable attacker. In the example of Sweden and Afghanistan, it is the Russians. Therefore it would be wise to either befriend Russia or acquire an alliance that would protect against Russia and fortify the most likely places of an assault.

Besides these two sub-factors of strength there are more sub-factors tied to them and these will be discussed in chapter six.

An even more important aspect of strength brings us to the second factor of maintaining prosperity, which is unity. Simple strength (or technological strength for that matter) can be overcome by unity. This is well-known, and therefore many mottos are strength in unity etc.

Unity between political entities comes in three types; Economic, political and military - all of which may not always be beneficial for all parties. There is also unity within any given entity which is always beneficial for the entity itself, but not for minorities with separatist agendas.

The different types of unity can be of different depths, and for each depth there are advantages and disadvantages which will be discussed later.

Conclusion The four factors for a stable state can also be divided into two groups; those with prerequisites and those without. All of the factors do have prerequisites but some are more demanding or difficult than others. For example, Justice needs only a political will and most countries are at peace, albeit some with internal problems. But Food and Knowledge need, in addition to political will, a long-term investment, and investment requires savings. Savings in turn require the government to be legitimate in order to firstly not lose all the money to corruption and for the population to â&#x20AC;&#x153;tolerateâ&#x20AC;? a temporary lower standard. This is important to understand because this will affect the order in dealing with the factors of the stable state.

5

E. Bradford. The Year of Thermopylae. Macmillan, London, 1980.

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Chapter Three: The Road to Prosperity

In this chapter a more detailed explanation of the factors, their needs and effects will follow. I will also present the means by which to achieve these factors. In this chapter I intend to go into detail on the matter of achieving these factors. This is because these factors will make up the essence and foundation of the successful state.

Justice: What is meant by justice and why it is so important and how to achieve it? Firstly we need to define this factor in order to know how to acquire it. It is important to notice that by defining justice, I do not mean defining the term itself and the philosophy around it. Rather it is defined around the state-citizen relationship and from a rights and obligations perspective.

By Justice it is meant how successfully the individuals in a given society or country can have justice served. How easy an individual can drive forward his legal dispute and chances of having a fair unbiased trial (includes criminal cases) and how easy (or difficult for that matter) it is to convict an official, a person associated with the state or government, or someone with a position - for all intents and proposes, your chances of claiming your right against the state or your fellow citizens. A just society must be ruled by laws and nobody must be above those laws. The concept of rechtsstaat6 and its criterions pretty much sums up the criterions for a just society. The criterions are as following: ď&#x201A;ˇ

The state monopoly on violence, where the state alone exercises coercion and guarantees the safety of its citizens

ď&#x201A;ˇ

Limitation of powers and providing for checks and balances between different powerbases

ď&#x201A;ˇ

6

All individuals and institutions are bound by the law (rule of law)

Rechtsstaat which is a German word literally means a rights state, in which rights are guaranteed. More

correctly translated it is the State of law or a constitutional state.

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

The legislature itself must be bound by elementary constitutional rights and principles



Transparency of state acts and the requirement of providing a reasoning for all state acts



Review of state decisions and state acts by independent organs, including an appeals process



Clear hierarchy of laws, requirement of clarity and definiteness



Reliability of state actions

A point I would like to add is the requirement of having a legitimate legislature. This point can be deduced from the fourth point in the criterions of a rechtsstaat. That it has to be legitimate does not automatically mean that it has to be chosen. For the interpretation of legitimate, one has to consider different cultural and social factors. That one society sees something as legitimate does not mean that all the societies see that as being legitimate. But the basis of legitimacy is acceptance based on the belief of your right to govern. Acceptance could also be derived from the current regime‟s effectiveness. One could also imagine that this performance extends over to the belief that the current regime has the right to rule. 7 In any case, the regime has the acceptance it needs to be legitimate. It is very important to notice that to be a just society or have a legitimate government, democracy is not necessary because acceptance can be acquired via other means. In a representative democracy you accept that a representative makes your decisions for you. A monarchial, theocratic, aristocratic system of government does not have to be unjust because they can become legitimate by gaining voluntary pledges of allegiances or, for example, if there is an acceptance of a certain monarch by virtue of his or her birth. There are many examples of undemocratic legitimate and just governments and one of them is the Rashidun caliphate.

Legitimacy is extremely important for Justice because where there is legitimacy there is no need for repression. This stems from the belief that acceptance is derived from three sources; legitimacy (the right to rule), efficiency or coercion.8 Coercion is needed in all governments but when expressed in repression it is intended as a substitute to legitimacy and efficiency because the regime doesn‟t have either. But this form of “legitimacy” is not really legitimate and as soon as the power of the regime is diminished this “legitimacy” is

7

T. Niklasson, Regime stability and foreign policy change,. Studentlitteratur, Lund, 2006, pp. 20, 21.

8

Ibid, p. 16.

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immediately removed, and with it widespread opposition becomes inevitable. A real legitimate government does not have the need to repress people.

The state´s monopoly on violence is crucial for Justice to emerge. If every individual in the country would take the law in their own hands, anarchy would be the result. And the endresult would be either total chaos or the law of the jungle. Thereby the original purpose of the state is lost. States that do not exercise the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x;s monopoly on violence are called failed states because of the importance of this point. The other part of this point is the guarantee of citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x; safety. This means that the monopoly on violence should not be used to oppress the people, but to be used to ensure justice by punishing criminals and maintaining law and order.

Providing checks and balances for different power platforms and the limiting and spreading out of power is needed in most cases. The downside of this is that there can be a questioning of authority, and the other downside is that implementing reforms would also take more time. By setting up other institutions with officially sanctioned power other than that body with the existing power, power is thus spread amongst them, yet to a varying degree.

Some have a negligible effect and some new institutions are so powerful or become so powerful that they have more power than the original institution they were set up by to guard against. So this is a delicate balance where there should not be too many institutions because of the bureaucracy, but these few institutions should not be too powerful.

The third point is that all institutions and individuals are bound by law. This is something that is present in almost all law books and constitutions and so forth. But the implementation of this point is a bit more difficult. There can be many reasons for this but the most usual is that there would be no power for the ruling elite if they were bound by the law. On the contrary, they would probably be imprisoned if they were bound by the law. The second is the sheer number of people and the number of laws that needs to be implemented, so there are no resources to implement all of them or everywhere. For the first problem there is no easy solution, i.e. when the rulers are not even trying to implement rule of law. But this book is for rulers who want the nation to prosper, so there is only the second problem and it is assumed from the beginning that the leaders have a political will. The solution for the second problem is to first remove all unnecessary or archaic laws so as to inspire honor and respect for the law. If there are laws, even if they are old and obsolete, that are not implemented the result cannot be anything else than a diminishing respect for the law. So removal of unnecessary laws that are not implemented is one part of the solution. The other is simply increasing the budget of law enforcement and its efficiency. Efficiency can be increased by increasing the 18

state´s monopoly on violence (control of arms, crackdown on organized crime and so forth) and thereby also stressing that point further. If the state, at a high frequency imprisons corrupt police officers and punish them, the efficiency of law enforcement agencies will also increase.

The legislature itself must be bound by elementary constitutional rights and principles.

This means that even the legislative body must follow the legislations. This is an emphasis on the rule of law. It is important to stress that nobody is above the law, not even those who make the law. I also interpret it so that the legislative body, besides being bound by the rule of law and some elementary constitutional principles, must be legitimate. As mentioned earlier, what legitimacy is depends on socio-cultural factors and can be acquired by a range of different means, yet the essence of it is acceptance.

Some things such as rule of law, the states monopoly on violence and the principal of legitimacy can be established through the legislative body without acceptance, even though this is very unlikely, because they are so elementary, but for any other law to be implemented it has to be in accordance to the three principals mentioned above.

The transparency of the state and government and all its institutions is crucial for Justice.

It is crucial so that any possible government-related crimes are documented and easier to be gathered as evidence. This point is an emphasis on the rule of law as to make sure that the state and its associated organs rule in accordance with the law. Also, providing a reason for state acts would calm down part of the populace if a particular decision is unpopular and would clarify the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x;s position on a certain matter.

Review of state decisions and state acts by independent organs, including an appeals process, is supposed to make sure that no rushed decisions are made. If they are made, there should be a means by which to review the state decisions by one or more independent organs.

In addition to making sure that the decisions/acts do not contradict existing legislature, the review also looks into if the act contradicts public interest.9 In addition to these advantages, this point strengthens the checks and balances of state power.

Clear hierarchy of laws, requirement of clarity and definiteness are quite obvious, yet nevertheless important. They are important so that the purpose of the law is known so that there can be no circumventions or false interpretations of the law so that there is no

9

Review of the law-making process and the legality of the law itself are usually done by constitutional

courts. The merit of any act however is instead controlled by having the government sending out drafts of a law to affected institutions and organizations for their counsel and point of view.

19

contradictions between different laws, and if there is, then it is known what law is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;strongerâ&#x20AC;? or the one being enforced.

Reliability of state actions is extremely important. It is the essence of stability. One of the arguments against democracy is that there is no reliability of state actions because of the possible change of government every fourth to sixth year. But even in despotic dictatorships there is no stability because the whims of the despot are the law, and these change more often than every fourth year. Anyway, stability is necessary because of its predictability and is a prerequisite for economic investment and growth. Prohibition of retroactivity is likewise important so that stability is preserved and so that people would not be discouraged from any legal investment or any other legal action.

Why is this then all important for the development of a country? No one can deny that Justice is something good, but why? Well, it is important for a number of reasons. The prime reasons are that Justice will not oppose development. On the contrary, it will steer the country in the right direction. Perhaps it will not do so on all planes, but it will do so at least on the political, judicial and financial plane. It will do so on the political plane via legitimacy, on the judicial plane via the nature of justice itself, and on the financial plane by cracking down on corruption. Justice has the big advantage of giving the current government legitimacy, which will be very critical during the process of establishing a successful state. This is so that there can be no extreme opposition to this process, and because in an already poor state it will be hard to convince the population not to consume and instead invest state funds. Justice will ensure the legitimacy of the government and thereby ensure a reasonable amount of acceptance in investing and having a long term vision. Finally, Justice is one of the conditions for a stable state.

After defining and explaining the importance of Justice, one must know how to achieve it, and there are many things to do before it is achieved. The first step is placing security measures on the military. Because for what good are all the legislative countermeasures and legislations if they simply can be overruled or disobeyed by the power of force? What says that the armed forces of a just nation will not just break the law? And if they do, who will stop them? The thing that has destroyed many young nations has been armed forces. The reason this happened in these young nations is that the population of these countries had not gotten used to the rule of law and did not object strongly to a coup i.e. there is negligible or no

20

civilian control10 present.11 Therefore some form of counterbalance against the military must be present, be it a counterbalancing group of people or an institution. But then on the other hand the institutions guarding against the military must also be guarded against. This is summarized in the following paradox - “because we fear others we create an institution of violence to protect us (the armed forced), but then we fear the very institution we created for protection”12. And if we create another institution to guard against the military we will also have to guard ourselves against that institution and so on.

To find out the best way on how to protect the state from the military is taking real examples. Why is it that a coup in for example Germany or Canada would be unthinkable but not in the countries of Africa. The most plausible answer is that the traditions of civilian control are not so rooted in the people and in the military. The military will therefore be more likely to revolt and obey unconstitutional orders at the same time as it is not likely to encounter any major resistance as opposed to what is in a society with well-rooted civilian control. These societies also have integrated their civil-military relations, yet not in a way that would disturb the army‟s efficiency. The military (and more importantly the soldiers of which it is composed) have been fostered to have their loyalty aimed towards the state, the citizenry and the legitimate government, regardless of the given government‟s political affiliation. This is the most important factor as it would be hard to convince the army to disobey civilian orders. This is also what holds the army in check as disobedience from one part doesn‟t guarantee that the whole military will switch allegiance to the rebellious part of the army. But there are many other factors playing a part in this, the most important of them being stability.

That is because if stability is present then the need for military intervention is not necessary.

The justifications for a military intervention are not present. If there is stability there is no way to disillusion loyal soldiers to overthrow the government. The opening and integration of the relatively closed military society, fostering loyalty to the population and the legitimate government, as well as professionalizing the armed forces are the best ways to achieve civilian control of the military.

10

Essentially that the state and civilian officials dictate the military´s missions, not the other way around.

For further reading see: R. Kohn. An Essay on Civilian Control of the Military, section: Defining Civilian Control, 1997.

11

E. Luttwak. Coup d’état: a Practical Handbook, Harvard University Press, 1968, pp. 33-38, 167-172.

12

P. D. Feaver. 1996. ‘The Civil-Military Problematique: Huntington, Janowitz and the Question of Civilian

Control’, in Armed Forces & Society, Vol. 23, No 2, pp. 149-150.

21

The problem of civilian control has been discussed since the rise of civil-military relations.

Besides the mentioned factors contributing to civilian control, there can be two types of more direct civilian control distinguished. These are what I would like to call:

1. Institutional control 2. Popular control

The two types have their own advantages and disadvantages. The first type was used in, among others, the USSR where military units would have political commissars supervising them. Having an intelligence agency or a resembling institution to have internal military activity put under surveillance would also qualify as having institutionally civilian control.

The benefits of this system are that it is serves as a very effective deterrent. No military man would risk agitating disobedience if he knew that he is under surveillance. But the downside is that the military would not be as efficient as it risks to much civilian control. It would also seem as if the military isnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t trusted by society and therefore differentiates itself from it. That would move the loyalty from the state towards the military unit and its commander. But as mentioned, the sheer risk of detection outweighs the disadvantages at least according to the nations that use this type of control.

The second type is implemented in the U.S.A. where the populace carry arms as a means of defending themselves against any possible future tyrants. This may not be as effective a deterrent, as the military still has a larger military capacity than the populace. But having this type of civilian control would drastically decrease the chances of a successful military coup.

This is because this would require a larger part of the army to join the coup and would require less popular opposition which would probably not be the case if the populace is armed.

Another positive point is that invading armies would have a harder time occupying the country. The negative side of this is that an increased supply of arms will decrease the state´s authority as the state´s monopoly of violence will be somewhat contested or risks being contested. An increase of gun related violence is also to be expected, and finally, there is the risk that the populace will revolt against a legitimate government.

It is up to each nation to decide what type is the best for them by considering geopolitical factors, but today many countries invest in fostering loyalty to the state or the population and integrate the military so it does not feel alienated from the society it is supposed to protect.

22

And last but definitely not least; transparency of the military is the final sub-factor to achieving civilian control as any military intervention would require some kind of planning or organization. Transparency is also needed in the society as a whole and is also a sub-factor to justice.

Therefore another reform for transforming a society into a more just one is increasing the transparency. If the rulers truly want justice they should invite citizens to be a part of the political process, to grant them the ability to see what the government is up to. That is of course useless unless there is a way to communicate the government‟s activities to the general public. Sweden has for example three good measures to increase transparency.

The first is offenlighetsprincipen which is the concept of freedom of information. Every citizen is legally entitled to access any government documents - with the only exception being the classified ones - and officials are required to document and archive various state and department act. This way, a citizen could see if the politicians have something shadowy going on or if there is a project or operation they don‟t want the public to know about. But then again what stops a civil servant from handing over any documents, classified or nonclassified, if there is no enforcement of the laws? Or what if the classification is abused or what stops the government to not archive or not publicize documents. That is why Sweden has so-called justitieombusmän appointed by the riksdag (the Swedish parliament).Translated loosely into „parliamentary ombudsmen‟; their only job is to make sure that all government bodies and departments follow the law and to take up complaints from citizens against the state. They have the power to prosecute civil servants, assuming the crime has been committed during service.13 This is a very effective system and also ensures rule of law.

Because the highest risk of breach of rule of law concerns civil servants and the ruling elite.

The second measure is two independent government TV-channels and four independent government radio channels. These together are called Public Service. They are independent in the way that they receive funding from the public. At the same time it is governmental in the way that its operations are governed by laws and the board is government appointed. The aim of the channels is not commercial, yet educational, and aims at increasing awareness and independent and unbiased coverage. It serves as a platform from which critical review of the politicians, parties and government agencies is being conducted.

13

Swedish parliamentary ombudsman, 12 February 2012, viewed on 18 February 2012,

<http://www.jo.se/Page.aspx?MenuId=12&ObjectClass=DynamX_Documents&Language=en>.

23

The third measure is government aid to different newspapers. Conditions for receiving aid could differ from country to country. But the purpose is to promote competition and diversity among newspapers. That way, the largest paper will have a decreased chance of monopolizing flow of information or making smaller newspapers go bankrupt. That way, different sources of information will be maintained which is crucial for independent opinions.14

In conclusion I would say the most important aspect of Justice is the rule of law made possible by the legitimacy of the government and also making the legitimacy of the government possible. The legitimate laws that are legislated are of no good unless enforced.

There must be laws that cannot be broken by anyone and these must cover all aspects of the governance process. The rights and obligations of the state and the citizens must be protected by law and there must be a clear hierarchy of laws. That is so that there are not contradictions in the law or if there are, then the law having precedent is known. There must be laws against power abuse, corruption, and excessive powers and laws pertaining to the governance process, as well as the rights and obligations of the members of society so as to achieve at least basic Justice.

The laws, the governance process, the rights and the obligations of the state and individual etc. are once again legitimate on the basis of acceptance. The acceptance is valid only if it is done without the exertion of pressure. For example, acceptance can be acquired amongst other things, by election, pledge of allegiance etc. Acceptance is, on the other hand, not necessary for the legislation of the laws required to achieve basic Justice. All points or sub-factors of Justice excluding rule of law and legitimate legislation are only there to help enforce or promote the two aforementioned points.

Peace As mentioned in the introduction, Peace is meant in its usual way but also in the way of freedom. Some degree of freedom is necessary because advancement will require freedom of action. That means not being restricted in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x;s work. It is also important to stress that lack of

14

Swedish press support board. 14 January 14 2011, viewed on 19 February 2012,

<http://www.presstodsnamnden.se/Presstod.html>.

24

freedom can be considered a source of poverty and therefore it is also important to provide for these freedoms. These freedoms do not mean that the state will accept violence because in the worst case scenario this would result in anarchy and chaos, which would go against the first objective of the state. One of the necessary freedoms is that the government shouldn‟t hinder individuals from establishing businesses as long as they don‟t violate the rights of others by having a separate interest that violates the public interest. Neither by the law nor by bureaucratic hinder nor by force or any other kind of deliberate pressure should people be hindered from producing lawful goods or services. On the contrary, it should encourage business enterprises. Examples are simplification of import of non-competing goods, the freedom and facilitation of starting a new business, the freedom of constructing etc. Of course the degree of freedom should vary depending on the geographic, cultural and social situation.

For example in the U.S.A. where the general mentality is market-liberalism and negative freedom it shouldn‟t pose a problem to liberalize the affected laws. Important to remember is that tight supervision and high standards on products and services are not necessarily contradictory freedom. There will, of course, also be exceptions against this freedom. For example, if someone wants to build a skyscraper in a suburb, that must be done with the inhabitants consent or some other kind of acceptance. Another example is if someone tries to import illegal goods or start an illegal business.

Freedom. As with all other words we need to define it, at least in the context of the book so that the reader will understand what is meant by the word. This is especially important when my contextual definition is different from the ordinary definition of the word. The more different, the more important it is that I define the word. And because freedom can include such a wide variety of meanings, it is even more important to define the word in this context so that there will be no misconceptions. I will define freedom from a relatively focused perspective and say that freedom is what man needs to have in freedom of action to get an increase of production; freedom of trade, and the freedom to prosper. By having those two freedoms he can either eradicate his poverty or someone else´s. The freedom to prosper means that successful people should not be punished for their success, whether that is via excessive taxation or other hindrances. The lack of freedom to prosper is actually what holds

25

back many countries and individual people in those countries. In Libya for example it was, for a period, forbidden to pronounce the names of football players except by their number.15 The degree of this kind of freedom and the freedom of economic action and production and its limits have been discussed. Shortly speaking, the limit is a result of a mixture of social, cultural and political boundaries. There is also the condition that this freedom doesn‟t go against public interests or is just promoting a separate interest. (An example cited before was the skyscraper in a suburb).

On the contrary, there should be a state of meritocracy in which the successful are rewarded. This should permeate throughout the whole society. Advancement in corporations is usually done on the basis of merit, but in the public sector there will be a need to legislate on this matter. If discrimination and nepotism etc. are too widespread in the private sector, legislation could also be needed there. The administration and civil servants corps is top priority when it comes to implementing meritocracy. This is because there will be a need for an efficient government to implement the reforms needed to fulfill the state´s duties. Also, having meritocracy dominating the civil service will contribute to spread the atmosphere of equality, i.e. that everyone has an equal chance of advancement based on their efforts and merits. This will in turn spread to other areas of society, as the society could be considered a living object with interacting parts. It will do so more if it comes from the government‟s side and from the civil service as these are symbols and signs of authority. And thus Peace which includes freedom, which amongst other thing is defined as meritocracy, will spread the atmosphere of justice contributing to the Justice factor which I cannot stress enough is the most important factor of them all.

Peace in the way of peace is obviously needed. But to make things more clear I will explain several benefits of Peace. First of all, a nation which is not militarized has a larger portion of their industrial capacity geared towards producing consumer goods. Thereby they are lowering the price/good/capita and thereby increasing the material prosperity which is needed for a stable tax base. Nation A has a population of 100 and has 100 factories producing 1 ware each. 10 of these produce military equipment and 90 produce goods and services. The ratio between population and goods will be 0.9 wares/individual. If 50 factories would produce military equipment the ratio would be 0.5ware/individual, so the benefit is 15

J. M. Dorsey, ‘Benghazi soccer exemplifies the battle between Arab autocrats and their detractors’, in AL

ARABIYA, 5 June 2011, viewed on 29 March 2012, <http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/06/05/151899.html>.

26

obvious. Although a military is necessary, it should not be excessive - that is the point. The struggle of determining the ratio between arms spending and consumer spending can be illustrated by the guns versus butter model. The industrial capacity will also be preserved if there is peace. The 100 factories in nation A would not be bombed or in some other way destroyed by the enemy if there is peace. So not only the ratio of consumer and military goods increases in what I would like to call a „peacing‟ nation, but also the total number of production means.

Peace also has an indirect benefit and that is that peacing nations often tend to develop their relationships and contacts, thereby increasing trade and cooperation. This especially happens in neighbouring countries, which ironically also are the countries of which most wars have been waged.16 So besides being preservative of a nation‟s prosperity it will also aid in increasing trade, cooperation and friendly relations. This in turn increases the amount of goods in the country and so too the prosperity.

The main benefit of peace would also be the security of the citizens. Even though wars may be waged, to secure the citizens there is no security that outdoes peace. Negotiating with elements -both internal and external- that are causing distress and fear should always be the first alternative to securing one´s own citizens. Thereby you reduce any possible resentments and feelings of aversion/hate etc. that may compromise your citizens in the future in addition to sparing them the horrors and costs of war.

Knowledge As I stressed, the factor of knowledge is very important. That is simply because there can be no progress without knowledge. But what is knowledge? From a philosophical point of view there is a whole arsenal, magazine, hangar and storage room full of different explanation as to what knowledge is and how it is gained. There are three main explanations as to what knowledge is and how it is gained. The first theory is what the rationalists promote and says that knowledge is gained through reason, intellect and logic. By deducting and reasoning we can assert what is true and what is false. The second theory, empiricism, says that knowledge P. R. Hensel. Territorial Claims and Armed Conflict between Neighbors, preliminary version of 9 March 2006, pp. 1-3.

16

27

is gained through experience. We humans are like a white paper on which experience is the ink and this is how we, through experience, become full of knowledge. The third theory stands apart from the previous two by saying that we really canâ&#x20AC;&#x;t know anything. Of course there are many alternate theories and different variations of these theories but these discuss knowledge from a philosophical and epistemological point of view. But as we only need to define it to the context of the book, this is what we will do.

Therefore, I define knowledge as what is needed in the form of knowhow to implement the six factors of achieving and maintaining the stable state, and in extension, the successful state, and also what is needed to increase and optimize production and make it more effective.

Knowledge is very important since it is directly involved, in addition to being a factor for a stable state, as a production factor. But increasing production is not only a matter of knowledge being directly applied in order to increase production. Rather it also includes knowledge that indirectly leads to an increase of production. For example, knowing how to form an excellent curriculum so as to provide for educated citizens will in turn increase the production knowledge that indirectly contributes to production. Although this is the main benefit and goal of knowledge from an economic point of view, knowledge is also what is required to develop human beings. Good government and knowing how to best produce inventors and astronauts is knowledge that also is included in the definition. Therefore, counted as being knowledge is also knowing how to best proceed in different processes, be that governmental, administrative or meeting processes or various knowledge about different abstract concepts such as morals, culture, freedom and so forth, as all these either lead to an increase in production or in human development. One might think that knowledge is only necessary when it comes to industrial and production knowhow, which is the kind of knowledge that increases production. But this is, as mentioned, not the case, although the production knowhow is also of great importance. It involves how to actually produce the prosperity. But knowledge is also necessary to indirectly increase production by developing the individual.

Furthermore, there are two kinds of knowhows when it comes to increased production and an increased stable state, and they are the industrial/production knowhow and the practical/abstract knowhow â&#x20AC;&#x201C; whilst being stressed that both are needed for prosperity.

Although there are many other kinds of knowhows that are useful in other areas such as education or agriculture, they will be discussed later when their areas of interest are affected, 28

and then in a more general manner when these knowhows can in the end be categorized in one of these two larger categories of knowhow.

Even though both kinds of the aforementioned knowledge-types are needed, the practical knowhow necessary for the human development is necessary before the industrial and productive. If, for example, production is increased by some means but not the abstract knowhow (example: knowing how to interact in different positions - how an official should act, how a receptionist should act, how a teacher should teach) there will be a generation of individuals who donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t have a clue about how to uphold their duties. Once the means that increased the production disappears, there will not be qualified persons to once again increase or at least uphold the production. There will then be somewhat of a social catastrophe because, as we know, people donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t like it when their material standards plummet. There is also the other end of the spectrum, and the best of those examples are Japan and Germany.

Both of them had, after the Second World War, a destroyed industrial capacity but stable practical and abstract knowhow. There was, despite many civilian casualties, the same people/knowhow before the war as after it. Even though they had destroyed economies, they recovered very quickly to the point that in the case of Germany it is called the German miracle. Another example is if production knowhow and production is increased, yet there is no knowhow of how to be an official. There could be consequences with possibly undesirable outcomes. Say there are officials who are still in the old mentality. The mentality the nation had before its transformation. They might be used to corruption and nepotism. Or if other government employees are not yet accustomed to the enforced prohibition against corruption and nepotism and they were helping each other avoid the legal consequences. This would lead to a loss of efficiency and non-compliance with the law. In addition, this would be running directly contrary to the Justice factor.

Also, citizens armed with knowledge and culture are not as easily subdued and more likely to resist military and cultural attacks and invasions. Therefore, knowing the functioning processes and practices is more important than factories and high-rise buildings, at least in the beginning.

Abstract knowhow is only gained by experience and by trial and error. One advantage of being a lagging country is that the experience is already there and someone else has already tried and erred so to say. Therefore, as I mentioned before, it is right to learn, even from the enemy. Governments should not put money on sending medical students learning the newest methods and treatments in foreign countries, instead it should send professors, docents and 29

doctors whom can teach others when they come back. They should try and error on their own because that alone teaches how to try and how to error, but more importantly how to know when one has tried and succeeded. The abstract knowhow is what is thought in preschool, elementary and secondary school, namely the basics; values, patience and morals and norms regarding all social interactions.

The other kind of knowhow, the industrial knowhow, is one of the production factors for a (an increased) production to come about. As this is the hardest production factor to acquire, most weight must be put on this one. Industrial knowhow is essentially what needs to be known in order to start up a functioning factory or service; everything from knowing how the machines work to knowing what pieces belong where in the assembly process and so forth.

Gaining this is the most long-term investment a country can do. This is the investment a country makes in their educational system. Imported qualified personnel will not hold in the long run because even though the imported personnel may stay for a long period of time, the experience he/she brings is only temporary unless he/she has come to educate the indigenous populace. But even then, one becomes dependant on foreign imports. So a functioning educational system is the basic fundament that knowhow stands on. This is why the education of the masses is urgent and should be done as fast as possible.

Another kind of industrial knowhow is how to build and maintain. What I mean is to know how to build roads, natural resource mines, hospitals, operate equipment and how to carry out maintenance. This is important so the country does not become dependent on foreign companies. Foreign companies will move capital outside the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x;s borders but an indigenous company will more likely not. Also, a national company is more likely to hire nationals to do the work and thereby provide valuable job opportunities. But for this to come about the state is responsible for providing educated and qualified personnel who once again are results of the educational system.

The idea for a functioning educational system should be specialization. Meaning, in this modern world with many different occupations and many specialized occupation being close to each other, that the educational system should aim to give people a chance to specialize in their area of interest. This idea is based on the idea that all individuals have something they are good at, and that they most likely will like doing what they are good at. That is why increasing breadth, yet at the same time specialization, is a very good idea. This should come about via two basic reforms, which are to shorten the basic elementary school and by making 30

the re-education and re-specialization of individuals easier. But the specialization will be broader so that an architect would for example study more broadly basic architecture and can then easy specialize or re-specialize to be the type of architect he/she wants to be. That way it will be easier to respond to changes of hearts and changes in the market. Education, especially qualitative education, is very expensive and therefore with the additional funds recovered from corruption through the Justice-factor, education should be prioritized in the government budget - before infrastructure, before social security and welfare etc. because without education, in the long run, there will be no infrastructure and so on. Education is an investment, and investments are capital not consumed today that bring more capital tomorrow, and that is precisely what education does.

But even if money is invested in education, there may not be enough money to go around.

Therefore, there should be a prioritization within the education system. This means that different parts of education will have different standards of quality. This will temporarily have to be the case as otherwise every area of education would stagnate just to ensure the same quality. Instead, prioritized areas such as agriculture, the three remaining factors of a stable state and production knowhow should be given a temporary advantage until the satisfactions of knowledge in these prioritized areas will lead to the level of prosperity that will enable the rest of the educational system to catch up.

6 5 4 3 2

Quality of education

1 0

31

This is summarized in this table. The four factors are given top priority at first. Pedagogy represents human development and the Peace factor is something that permeates throughout the educational system and is therefore not represented by a specific category. The amount of priority given to these factors varies of course, and this table is only intended to illustrate the principle of different standards of education. After sufficient funds have been allocated, the quality should look like this: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 Quality of education

3 2 1 0

Now the general quality has increased and so has the equality between the different areas. The reason there still exists some differences is that there should be a special emphasis on the prioritized areas, as any deficiency in these areas will in the long run lead to a general decrease in the quality of education.

As a conclusion you can see that the knowhows intermingle and complement each other.

You can also see that all of them are needed in one way or another in order for progress to come about. In the end, one can also see that it all comes down to the educational system and the cultural norms as well as the individuals that these two factors form. The institutions are there to help develop the individual through knowledge and practice, who in turn will continue to develop the cultural, educational and other social and governmental institutions. It would be hard to acquire all the knowhows of the successful state, and therefore it is recommended to initially only acquire the knowhow for the four factors of a stable state and the production knowhow.

32

Food Food is the last factor for attaining a stable state. In this factor I also include water because both food and water are needed to survive and they both have the same effects once achieved.

The factor of Food may seem as obvious and as necessary or important as Peace to achieve prosperity, and it is. But what is not that easy to see is why it so. Besides the obvious need for Food, there are two additional reasons Food is necessary.

According to Maslowâ&#x20AC;&#x;s step of needs, physiological needs come first in the staircase of needs and physiological needs include food and water.17 If these needs are not met the individual will not have the will or the power to do anything other than to try to fulfil these needs. On the other hand, if these needs are fulfilled the individual will be able to do other things than worrying about how to acquire food. Among the other things an individual would be able to do include producing goods and services which are, as was explained, the basis of material prosperity. Having more food than necessary will free up financial resources, human resources, time and materials, thus having them spent on other things than food such as importing consumption utilities, building up knowhow so as to produce domestic utilities, commissioning housing projects and so forth, as the list could be made very long.

The second reason for having excess food is that excess food leads to lower food prices. As food is very necessary for our existence we will continue to buy food even if the price is high.

That means that less purchasing power will be left for other goods and services and thereby reduce demand. Reduced demand leads to, as we know, a dampening of economic activity.

Increasing food prices is also the prime factor in so-called bread riots which risk the stability of the country. I will discuss how to achieve Food after discussing the production factors so that these can be applied to the Food factor.

17

A. H. Maslow. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Theory of Human Motivationâ&#x20AC;?. Psychological Review, Vol 50, No 4, 1943, p. 370-96.

33

Final conclusion The Justice and Peace factors only need a political will and time to implement. The funds recovered from these two factors would be invested in improving Justice and modernizing and broadening education. The education system itself should be prioritized so as to provide the knowhow for food and agriculture first and other areas later in accordance with local conditions. Once the agriculture itself is modernized this leads to manpower, materials and most importantly purchasing power being freed up for other projects.

34

Chapter Four: On the Subject of Wealth

Definition of wealth and where it comes from One thing that must be cleared with the concept of wealth is that wealth doesn‟t come from money. One must consider money as any other goods with one major difference; it‟s quantified in relations to all other goods making it easy to trade with. For example: a package of milk costs one dollar. But how much is a package milk worth in sugar; one kilogram, a pound, three teaspoons? Money is more practical.

Money is only worth something because we know that we can buy something else with them. That is why me writing a hundred on a piece of paper doesn‟t make it worth a hundred and that‟s why money is worthless on an uninhabited island.

Like any other goods if there is too much of it, its value is lowered and vice versa. That‟s why countries can‟t produce how much money they want. One must produce money in accordance with population growth and industrial production or else there will be an imbalance. That is they have to produce enough money to meet increased demand of money (or reduced demand if there is inflation). If a population grows and there is an increase of goods and services there must be more money to handle the new goods and services. A simplified example: There is a pool of goods and services produced by companies. These companies produce more and more goods and services. The goods/capita ratio increases thereby decreasing prices. To avoid deflation more money is printed and the balance is kept.

The relationship money has with population growth is that more population leads (usually) to increased production leading to more money being created. If there is an increased population but not an increase in production, that leads to less goods and services/capita making them more rare and expensive and no need to create more money. An extremely simplified but also correct example: There is a thousand dollars in the market but only 200 goods and a 100 population. That will be 10$/person and 5$/ware. Increasing or decreasing the money won‟t make anything cheaper. It would just increase or decrease the scale respectively. This is what happened in Turkey when they decided to remove six zeroes from 35

their currency.18 On the other hand if there is a thousand dollars and 200 goods and 200 population. The numbers would be 5$/person and the price for goods would be 5$/ware. In the first example each person could buy 2 wares. In the latter each person could buy 1 ware and so the material prosperity has decreased. Different combinations will result in different levels of economic prosperity but will always see that it is the goods and services per person that constitutes material wealth. The principles we can deduce is that an increase in population will decrease prosperity while an increase in production will increase the prosperity.

Therefore production must be greater than the population growth and money should be created accordingly. The production of money must follow the production of goods and services and population growth and not come before them because as we showed it is not money that constitutes wealth. The difference between the examples and real life is that the prices of goods and distribution of money would be unequal.

Wealth can also be defined from its opposite; poverty. There are many definitions of poverty and about who is poor but these definitions all are found within the categories called absolute and relative poverty. I will also present what I think is the most appropriate definition of wealth, at least in the context of this book. It is important to bring up the subject of poverty because in dealing with and combating poverty we will also at the same time be checking of one of the points in our list of tasks as a state.

Absolute poverty is when there is a poverty threshold in which those who are below the threshold are considered poor. It is the threshold that there are different views on. But the main thought that comes to mind when thinking of poverty is the absence of wealth which causes the absence of basic things such as clean water, enough food, decent clothing and reasonable housing. Of course it is also a question of definition about what “enough, decent, and reasonable” is. But something many could agree with is that enough food means what is enough to sustain you and for your family with varying food and having food security. Decent is what is required to protect private parts and from hot and cold and reasonable housing is clean, warm housing with hygiene facilities and without overcrowding.

But one could argue that there is more to being poor than just lacking these above mentioned things such as the lack of an education or proper healthcare. By this definition even the one with food and water etc. is still poor if he doesn‟t have the option of getting an 18

Law 2004 – 5083 on the Currency Unit of the Republic of Turkey, 2004, Central Bank of the Republic of

Turkey, viewed on 22 February 2012, <http://www.tcmb.gov.tr/yeni/banka/yenilira/5335ing.html>.

36

education. One could even argue that the poor - including the above mentioned factors - is the one who is lacking freedom or power.

As you can see they all have in common the lack of something but in this context discussing wealth and such the most appropriate would be to define poverty from a material perspective i.e. poverty is the lack of the basic needs of food, water, clothing and housing. But as it is the state´s job to provide for an education, healthcare, infrastructure and such, those who lack these things can be classified as poor of the second degree. The ones lacking these things are not acutely or mortally poor but still lack something very important. The same thing goes with freedom and power as the ones lacking these things are not that poor (materially) but they still lack something important and they can be classified as poor of the third degree. These degrees of poverty are not mutually exclusive and someone that is unfortunate enough to be homeless, without an education and living under a brutal regime will qualify for all three degrees of poverty. The same thing goes for example for the one who lacks the basics of existence and an education but not freedom. He would be considered poor of the first and second degree only.

Besides the absolute measurements of poverty, there is something called relative poverty.

A person without a car or an education may not be considered poor because of that but sometimes he will be, all relative to the context that he lives in. If everyone else in his social context has a car and a cell phone but he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t then he is poor and vice versa. I think this kind of measurement of poverty is rather irrelevant because in my opinion the state is not responsible for the secondary material needs of the citizens. Also relative poverty means that â&#x20AC;&#x201C;theoretically- if everyone has a gold house and you have a silver one then you are poor but if everybody is homeless and you are living in a tent then you are not poor. From the examples mentioned we can deduce that relative poverty is a tool better used to measure difference in wealth rather than answering the question of being or not being poor.

After defining poverty, its scales and degrees one can see that the first degree is the most acute and combating it is done through wealth. Economic growth which results in increased wealth is a key factor in combating absolute poverty even though relative poverty can increase with economic growth if only a portion of citizens receive the benefits of economic growth. Wealth was also shown earlier to be goods and services and that to combat poverty and for the state to fulfill its duties it will need goods and services.

This gradation of poverty can also be related to how successful a state because the criterions for the successful state are so closely related with the degrees of poverty. If a 37

country has completed all the criterions for the successful state then it has also eliminated or reduced all kinds of poverty. One could for example say that if more than 20% of a country´s population is poor then the country is poor of the first degree and it can be called a third world country or a country that is poor of the first degree. More than 40% being poor and it could be called a failed state. If more than 15% of the population is illiterate or lacking proper healthcare or electricity but only 8% are poor of the first degree it could be considered a second world country or a country that is poor of the second degree. A country that scores low on a freedom index and has 25% of its people that are poor of the first degree but there is free healthcare and education for everyone then the country could be classified as both poor of the first and third degree but not the second.

Of course as the state´s tasks have priorities the reducing of poverty also has priorities but is secondary to the state´s priorities. As the first priority of the state is to guarantee its citizens lives so should its first priority be to combat all mortal poverty i.e. poverty of the first degree and mortal diseases. Also as it is the second job of the state to provide for education so it should secondly combat poverty of the second degree. That way the state eliminates the most acute type of poverty first. A prosperous nation is one with an eradicated or at least very low level of poverty of all degrees. Therefore a nation should strive to eliminate poverty and to do so it needs the conditions to do so. And the tools with which to eliminate poverty and becoming a successful state is wealth. And now that wealth has been defined or at least clarified we can get on with the business of actually attaining it.

To increase wealth To increase wealth we need to increase the production of wealth. Now if wealth is goods and services then to increase wealth we need to increase the production of goods and services.

This is not an easy task as indeed the whole economy is based on goods and services and basically we need to get the economy to grow. It could be done easier if one were to break up the problems of production and systematically processing them one by one. For example some people might think that production is only a matter of production factors and to increase these would be to increase production. These production factors need to be coordinated and are also dependant on external factors beyond our control. So the timing when one should concentrate on a particular factor is also something that needs to be calculated. Also the 38

production factors have prerequisites and these are the same prerequisites required for a stable state. The prerequisites for a basic functioning stable state are dependent on four factors; Justice and Peace, Knowledge and Food. In the context of production the first two will make sure that the increase of production factors go on uninterrupted and that the goal of the production is not lost. The latter factors are needed for the actual process of production in the form of knowhow and to free labour forces.

Besides getting the production factors other problems for production can range from anything like reduced demand, low purchasing power and a lack of market, to domestic production vs. import, foreign competition, brain drain and so on. All these problems will be dealt with one by one beginning with the factors of production.

The factors of production

Most of these factors need money/capital which is most probably not there in a poor state. So how then acquire the money needed to make more money. It seems like a classic catch 22.

The solution is that the premise is false. There is almost always money; the problem is where it is spent. It could either be on grand presidential/royal palaces or on beautifying roads.

Either way it is not invested. This is where Justice and political will comes in and acts as a prerequisite for production. Justice will ensure that the leaders and companies are not corrupt, that invested capital is spent correctly and that administration is efficient while political will ensures that there is a commitment to save and invest. In a democracy the political will to save would be difficult to drive through especially if the population is already poor and illiterate or low educated which is most probably the case in a poor democracy. On the other hand there is in modern dictatorships almost always the problem of Justice even though the political will only depends on the leader.

Peace effects the liberalization and/or regulation of various corporate laws, regulations and taxes. The key here is not to be dogmatic about it and adjust according to needs. If for example liberalization in rent control did not produce an expected increase in housing construction -even after a period- and there is no signs telling otherwise and on the contrary it only increased the rents, then there is no reason not to regulate the rents. On the other hand if the state owns a company which is constantly running unnecessary deficits with no or little 39

value for the public then there is no reason not to sell it. Either way how one chooses, production factor zero is Justice, Peace and a political will.

Next, to start up a factory producing goods or a company producing a service or building a road for example there are basic things needed. (Note that the investments mentioned could either be state funded or only encouraged by the state or a joint investment). First and foremost there must be a market. What is the point of producing say steel if there is nobody willing to buy it or use it? Letâ&#x20AC;&#x;s start by looking at the always present food market. Starting to produce food will also be as killing two birds with one stone. One would build up a potential industrial base and eliminate the need for food and the Food-factor at the same time.

Note that a service is simpler to produce in terms of reduced production factors. For example there is no need for resources. But there is all the greater need for a market as service cannot be preserved; it is produced and consumed at the same time.

The second thing needed to produce is raw materials. Raw materials can be attained either through import or production. A country can depending on its position pursue two strategies.

Both of course have their own advantages and disadvantages. Combining both strategies is the most usual but although producing your own resources is the best, this is not always possible.

The first position is very simple. It is to import the needed resources. To do this a country needs also to export something to establish a positive or at least a balanced trade balance and thereby not losing too much capital. The most usual thing to be exported is either a processed good or an abundant natural resource. Exporting raw materials for raw materials or processed goods for raw materials is good because processed goods are more expensive than raw materials.

Because raw materials are cheaper it would not get as many processed goods in return when trading. If the country is undeveloped, trading raw materials for raw materials is good as to fulfil the second need to produce own processed products. But this would leave even less with which to buy processed goods than if all exported goods would be traded for processed goods. This would have the effect of raising the price of processed goods and lower the standard of living. But on the other hand it would make it easier and more attractive for domestic producers to produce. You would also be getting the raw materials needed for a domestic production. This is the where legitimacy comes in the picture as this period -before domestic production begins- is very critical.

40

The negative aspect of this approach is that a country would somewhat dependent on other countries. This aspect could on the other hand be reduced by the Peace-factor as this would render conflicts with foreign nations more improbable and therefore also an embargo or a trade-stop. But, a trade-stop could still occur for other reasons such as your trading partner finding someone selling the same goods cheaper. But then again you could also.

The second approach a country could do to acquire resources is that it produces/extracts its own raw materials. There are of course cases where this is impossible. But this strategy aims to reduce those impossibilities. The most usual thing for undeveloped countries is having foreign companies extract the resources and in turn receive money or a certain percentage of the extracted goods. It is also usual for foreign companies to be responsible for road/railway/metro construction and also residential/industrial and public works construction.

The reason for this is simple and it is the lack of knowhow. The capital is there and there is also a profit to be made as the foreign companies don‟t work for free. Resources are sometimes lacking and therefore foreign means of production are needed such as digging machines, bulldozers etc. but for the most part resources are also existent or else they could be imported. But as said it is in no small part the lack of knowhow that is preventing countries producing their own goods and instead resorting to importing foreign companies. This stresses the importance of education and practical experience. Imported personnel will solve the need for educated personnel but not the need for practical experience. The knowhow for the extraction/production of a raw material is highly dependent on the resource but the essential thing is the knowhow. Once it is obtained one can easily produce one‟s own resources.

Thereby you reduce dependency and at the same time keep capital in the country. The positive aspect besides reduced dependency is the profit that is to be made by extracting resources. The negative aspect of producing/extracting on one‟s own is that the quality/quantity won‟t be as it would be if a foreign company produced/extracted it or if it was imported, though this gap would be reduced with time. The other negative aspect is that producing on one‟s own is not always possible. Otherwise it is always more positive to do it yourself.

The third thing needed is means of production. The means of production is non-human input used to produce and this would include such things as machines, tools and factories. This can any country -in theory- achieve. The means by which production means is acquired might seem paradoxal though as one might ask; how can one produce production means without 41

production means. The good news is that most countries already have production means -though they might be primitive- the basics are there. The bad news is that to produce the more advanced production means such as machines and hi-tech factories both advanced production means and knowhow is needed which the undeveloped countries almost always lacks. The knowhow is needed to know what kind of production means to produce and know how to make it work and how to produce it. So production means is something countries can in time learn how to produce. But how to actually produce them without the existing means then? The solution for this is importing the first â&#x20AC;&#x153;waveâ&#x20AC;? of production means or having foreign companies build them. This is acceptable because after this you would be able to build your own production means and develop them with your own knowhow.

The fourth thing is financial capital. This is an extremely important as this factor is what can make all the other factors available. When someone invests in a company it usually means that he has contributed with financial capital which the company then can spend on the other factors. State financial capital could be released through either efficiency by reducing corruption and increasing production or by saving. Saving requires temporarily lowering living standards in order to achieve an even greater one. Willingness to do this in poor states is little and therefore legitimacy which we have discussed shortly and which we are going to discuss more extensively later is extremely important.

The final thing that is needed is a labor force and its respective knowhow. We now have the financial means, the right kind of production means, the natural resources needed to produce and a market which demands the products. We are only missing someone to operate the equipment and know how to do so. These people are as said trained through the education system. The education system should be aimed towards providing educated personnel for the market in order for the companies or the state to be able to produce.

Applied on the food factor If we apply the general guidelines mentioned previously on Food we can step by step see how we can acquire Food.

42

There are many ways to acquire cheap food. Ultimately the source of food is decided by the given countryâ&#x20AC;&#x;s geographical location. If agriculture is not an option, there is the option of importing although this is a variable source. The exporter may decide to raise the price; for various reasons thereby making you somewhat dependant on the goodwill of the exporters.

The best source is domestic agriculture as one could grow more of the most coveted agricultural products. Another advantage is relatively reliable output unless there is a natural disaster or something of that sort and therefore could and should be complemented with import. The knowhow for agriculture is as one now can see very important. One must know what to grow, when to grow it, where to grow it and how much of it to grow. This can applied to fertilizers as to know what kind should be used, when, where and how much. Besides this kind of information there is the need of advanced agricultural machines and tools. There is also need to train farmers in the latest techniques, ways and technical devices. Finding an efficient way of growing food and having a low farmer to population ratio will bring the necessary changes to free men, time and material to continue the process of building up a prosperous nation.

Say we are going to produce food. Then we need agricultural land, agricultural machines, agricultural fertilizers and good farmers. Taking with us the principles we concluded during the production section we can say that the market for food exists. If there happens to be too much supply of food it can be exported although not to all markets depending on how high the tolls and tariffs are.

Anyway, the second thing needed was resources and in this case the resources are water, seeds and agricultural land. We said that if there is no agricultural land they should resort to import but for the sake of argument we assume that there is agriculturally viable land. And even though there is none there might be ways as to improve the fertility of the land. Water is always present; otherwise there would be no humans. But the problem here would be finding excess and easily accessible water for the agriculture. Here again there are two positions: either importing bottled water as is usual -or as Barcelona once did, import water in tanker ships19- or by producing your own water whether that be through digging and extracting from wells or by purifying sea water or used water through water cleaning plants. (How to build

19

E. Nash. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Arid Barcelona forced to import waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, in The Independent. 11 April 2008, viewed on 23

February, 2012, <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/arid-barcelona-forced-to-importwater-807810.html>.

43

those requires another story but the principles are the same as we go through the production factors one by one). Seeds can easily be imported or produced but it is important to import the right kind that grows and prospers in your country. The same also goes for fertilizers in addition to the fact that they can easily be produced.

The third thing needed was production means. In this case the production means are the agricultural tools and machines. As these machines can be difficult for a developing country to produce they will have to be imported or a mediocre type of the machines will have to be built. This includes things such as tractors, ploughs, balers, reapers, farm trucks but also structural facilities such as an irrigation system. Clearly agriculture is very capital intensive.

All this would be difficult to produce so the need to import is large. Although it may seem expensive now the investment would be balanced by the rationalization that occurs once the modernization is completed. This larger capacity for agriculture would bring both good and bad news as to the need for irrigation. The good news is that there is no old, obsolete, irregular or dysfunctional irrigation system that needs to be removed or repaired. Similarly the bad news is that there is no irrigation system. What I mean is that for good or for worse you will need to build a new irrigation system. Building an irrigation system and one or more of the agricultural machines also require a point by point discussion and then actual implementation. The risks of this modernization are that the uneducated farmers might not always find work and the work market is not always optimal in relation to the unemployed.

These negative effects would be somewhat alleviated by the modernization of the educational system and increasing supply of food but could still cause social upheavals if too many farmers become unemployed.

As we can see this is a large project, but I also assume that behind this project there is the backing of the state or some venture capitalists and for them this is not as large a project as it is for the small or medium scale farmer. This is from were financial capital would be collected, this is in addition to released funds generated from Justice and Peace and from the larger tax base the Peace factor hopefully have brought about.

The use and operation of the production means is the topic of the next point. The final and fifth thing needed was the knowhow. This point is extremely important as it is to be used in all aspects of agriculture. Examples are the knowhow of pesticide, fertilizers, operation of machines, maintenance, handling of harvest, how and when to reap for best harvest, handling and storage of harvest and so on. This knowledge can be gathered and taught to farmers and affected people in the department of agriculture. This is of course best done through a 44

university, so among the top priorities in the knowledge factor is modernizing and improving the faculty of agriculture.

Once a good knowhow has been established, modern machines acquired and farmers trained, is it just a matter of getting the actual farming infrastructure up and start growing. If the money from the previous rationalizations is not enough trying to get international aid is one potential source of income. Giving someone a fishing rod and teaching him how to fish is better than to give him a fish every day. Convincing other states and NGOs that this aid would help you get a fishing rod should be easy considering the reforms done in Justice, Peace and now Food. Already existing aid might be redirected to agriculture and reduced corruption is a big plus when seeking additional aid. Firstly it increases chances of getting money or more money and secondly it increases the percentage of that money that is actually put to use.

The market The hardest part in production of other goods than food will be to create a market and demand for native products. The dilemma of most underdeveloped countries is that starting and running a factory will be more expensive and sometimes even less qualitative than importing.

A usual way of countering these inferior competitive qualities is by raising tolls and tariffs on foreign wares and this is what protectionism is about. This makes the foreign produced goods as expensive if not more expensive than the domestic ones and gives domestic wares a fighting chance. Although this might be good for domestic production initially, trade will go down and with it the benefits of trade. It also makes prices on those wares generally to go up and at the same time reduce competition among products. This practice also has as a consequence that other nations will follow suit and making it harder for you to export as happened during the Great Depression.

A balanced protectionist policy is that you initially only raise tolls on wares which are crucial or very beneficial that the country itself produces them. This might be the case with air conditioners in a hot or arid country. At first the price on air conditioners will go up as a result of higher costs for the foreign producer and because of reduced total supply because of lessened imports. This can be countered to some degree by subsidizing air conditioners by using the tariff revenues. But reduced supply will also mean that there is not as fierce competition and that will raise prices further and lower the quality. But this profit45

potential makes other potential domestic producers wanting to head into the market and start to produce. This in turn raises supply which raises quality and reduces prices and so status qou has been achieved though with the difference that the products and purchasing power still remains in the country. This process can be included in the peace/policy factor as this has to do with the freedom of import and export. It also requires that a country has persons that are able to start and run companies i.e. are entrepreneurial. And there is a careful balance considering when and how mush to raise the tolls. The government will need to conduct detailed investigations and gather considerable information before commencing such a step, because there is the risk that higher tolls will just end up hurting your foreign relations, raising prices and with no additional production to balance the costs.

The cycle (from raised tolls to start of domestic production) might take different periods of time depending on the efficiency of implemented policies, the rooting of entrepreneurship in society, the product itself and original purchasing power of the population. But each time the cycle is repeated it will take less time to complete as all the factors contributing to the procrastination of completion of the circle will be reduced except the product factor. It is also important not to raise tariffs on to many goods at the same time or this will cause inflation because of raised costs of living and along with all the other negative consequences of protectionism. Other factors operating negatively on the production-factors not having to do with finance is brain-drain which will be dealt with in chapter 7 (traps and challenges).

Investment

An important aspect of investing is the ability to raise funds by saving and not by raising taxes. This is because saving and investing now begets growth and more funds later whereas taxation will give a funding boost now but will after reaching a certain level only decreases tax revenues in accordance with Laffer´s curve.20

20

Laffer´s curve originally discovered by Ibn Khaldun illustrates that too much taxation reduces tax

revenues because incitement for investment disappears and growth come to a halt. The border between optimal taxation and too heavy taxation is unidentified and the curve is meant just to illustrate the point made above.

46

Spreading the wealth Another big problem for developing countries is that the purchasing power of citizens is rather low and therefore even an increase in supply will not result in an increase for demand.

One of the main factors contributing to this is that most or all of the purchasing power goes to food and other first priority things like clothes, housing and water. But because we will continue to buy food even if it is expensive it is of outmost importance that food prices go down to free purchasing power for other things. Other necessary goods like clothes and shelters have different degrees one can chose from but having enough food simply to exist is the most basic of them all and non-negotiable so to say. So to put it like an equation; the purchasing power remaining after food consumption is what remains for other first and secondary priority consumptions. And when there is an increase in food and other goods the prices of these goods will decrease and thereby increasing the PP. But even if the people have enough food because of increased PP it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t always mean that they will be able to buy books, chairs, cars and so on. It just means that they will be able to buy more than before how much or little this might have been.

There must be some other factor contributing to the low purchasing power of a people and this is the lack of distribution. All poor countries no matter how poor have an "aristocracy" so to say or an upper class whoâ&#x20AC;&#x;s PP are much greater than the rest of the population. In corrupt countries this upper class usually consists of the leader, his associates, higher officials, officers and their sons and families. It must not be only these that make up the upper class but they always make up a part of it or are even considered to be the upper upper class. What contributes to the low PP of the lower class is the extremely uneven concentration of PP in the hands of the upper class. This uneven distribution also contributes to both relative and absolute poverty. But as relative poverty is translated into wealth distribution one can say that relative poverty must be reduces to a point where there is no absolute poverty. In addition to increasing the PP of the population, distribution of wealth will make it easier to tax people without ruining their personal economy thereby gaining a larger tax base. It will also assist in the combat against poverty.

Although it may sound that I might be calling on the relative poverty of the lower class to justify wealth distribution this is not the case (if the wealth was acquired by legitimate means). It is the absolute poverty of the lower class which calls for the distribution of wealth and relative poverty must only be reduced to a point where there is no absolute poverty.

47

Therefore after achieving the stable state and economic growth/production it is time to redistribute the new wealth. This redistribution also has the desired effect of aiding in creating a stable and healthy market for goods.

In this Islam has a good way of distributing the wealth as to make sure that all citizens of the state have at least a minimum standard of living. This system is called the zakah. It consists mainly of paying 2.5% of the value of your capital and unused assets stored for a period of a lunar year -if this value exceeds the equivalent of 85 g pure gold-. This is payed to earmarked categories of which the poor and the zakah-collecting agency itself are among them. So if you after a year have a total of 10 000 dollars then you must pay 250 of these. The sum might seem negligible but collected form an entire people the revenue is large. Also because it punishes unused money and assets it encourages investment and consumption.

Although not obligatory on non-Muslims if implemented this system would help a lot in the quest to spread the wealth There are detailed descriptions of all matters regarding the zakah in Yusuf Al-Qardawi´s essay “Fiqh Al Zakah” (The Jurisprudence of Zakah)21. Because the revenue raised from zakah is earmarked it makes it even easier to make sure that the revenues raised will be enough to spread the wealth in a sufficient manner. This system was so efficient that during the reign of Omar bin Abdul-Aziz also known as Omar II it is reported that there was no poor people to distribute the zakah on.

Another way of indirectly spreading the wealth is constructing and building things useful for the public; that everyone can use. Public works such as parks, roads, street cleaning is something that is “paid for” by everyone and that everyone enjoys and can use. Public works of this type should not be constructed on the expense of the state´s tasks i.e. if there is not enough money to modernize the educational system then building a park should not be prioritized over the educational system. Some of these public works projects that are within the frame and parameters of the state´s tasks are the topic of the next chapter which I will discuss

21

soon.

For a pdf version of the essay in English see:

http://monzer.kahf.com/books/english/fiqhalzakah_vol1.pdf by translator Dr. M. Kahf.

48

More knowledge and production

The spread of wealth, increase in knowledge and the increase of production should be done simultaneously or come in close succession. After wealth is distributed there will be a larger tax base from which to extract taxes. (The tax level itself though should remain at the same level or be as low as possible). This would then be used to further improve education and increase knowledge which would stimulate production. Also any reduction in any of the four factors of a stable state should be countered with this increased wealth and tax money. The increase in knowledge will also make your country attractive to foreign and domestic investment. Modernizing the education system more will make your citizens more productive and demanded. Also the knowhow of many things would be acquired so when the state or companies wants to produce them, the fourth production factor (knowhow) would be ready.

Increased demand from increased PP combined with additional laws helping companies out and making it easier for companies to be established and a trained workforce will help create more production. Then there should be a repetition of the cycle knowledge, production and distribution. It is when there is a big enough tax base and funds to complete the next stage that the time has come to move to the next stage. What big enough means depends on the ambitions and size of the given country. A big country that wants to have a very large and modern healthcare would have to wait a long time for the economy to increase. One solution is to slowly begin with peripheral things that would aid and accelerate the increase of economic growth such as infrastructure. Another way is just simply lowering the ambitions and having a moderate healthcare in the beginning and then expand it as the economy grows.

49

Chapter Five: What Else?

In this chapter I will sum up what we have achieved in the successful state but more importantly what else there is to do as not all points have been achieved. This is also the chapter where the “next stage” is discussed.

We assume a political will and some stability. After that Justice and Peace was achieved by laws and legislations at the same time or with Peace slightly following Justice. The money recovered from these two points we invested in knowledge to the point we at least barely would be able to begin basic production. One of these was Food and agricultural production which was modernized. The increased production freed PP and the distribution increased it even more. The increase in demand together with the additional conditions for production (freed manpower as a result of knowhow in agriculture) opened the road for further production. Distribute the wealth as this will increase PP and tax revenues and repeat. Now we are ready to move on to the next stage. But first here is a list of what we have done and what these points corresponds to in the either the “State´s tasks” or the factors for a stable state.

1. Political will 1.1 Stability, will to invest, to reform 2. Justice

Itself

3. Peace

Itself/protection against private interest

4. Basic Knowledge

Itself

5. Food

Itself, some poverty combat

6. Increase wealth (production)

Eliminating some mortal poverty

7. Spread wealth, more Knowledge & prod.

Knowledge, some poverty combat

8. Remaining tasks state

(the next phase)

8.1 Eliminating remaining poverty 1D

Remaining mortal poverty

8.2 Eliminating remaining poverty 2D

Healthcare/Education

8.3 Infrastructure

Infrastructure 50

Here is what is left of the state´s tasks (bold means achieved): 0. Justice 0.1.Protection against private interests.

1. Safety & security 1.1.Eliminating mortal poverty (sometimes only partly achieved) 1.2.Healthcare 1.3.Infrastructure 2. Education

Poverty: of the second degree The next stage is essentially what remains of the state´s tasks. More specifically these are healthcare, more education and infrastructure. Healthcare should be made to go through the same procedure as food production. If we quickly look through the process then we can conclude that there is a need and a market for healthcare. The resources and means of production needed in order to provide healthcare are things such as medicines, equipment and surgical tools in addition to the hospital building itself. Capital and funds would come from either private investors or the government. Finally it is up to the government to train or hire doctors and other hospital staff. How the healthcare should be formed, work ethics, regulation and rules are all subject to local conditions and it is highly recommended that there is an investigation conducted around these issues. In addition to that the hospital and doctor density is something that is subject to the amount of capital available but is something that should be increased as time progresses.

Education is as said the most important investment a country could make. It is an investment in human development and knowledge. Its fruits are also completely harvested after a long period; at least 10-15 years. But at this point we would already have basic education and advanced education in the area of agriculture and now it is time to expand the modernization of the higher education. Among the most priorities areas are those of pedagogy, construction/architecture, medicine, economics, law and technology. By modernization it is meant expansion if necessary, modernized methodology and curriculum, development of teachers and pedagogy and modernized equipment such as science labs and computers. Of course this will cost a lot and should be implemented gradually. The exact 51

priority of faculties and the order of modernization are subject to local conditions and should be examined by an investigation.

By infrastructure different modes of transportation is usually meant, but in addition to that critical public utility such as water, electricity and garbage disposal are also considered to be a part of the public infrastructure. It is not my point to discuss in detail how to build and sustain such infrastructure or what to prioritize. Every country knows what modes of transportation that suits it based on development level, size and population. As for the civil infrastructure, those are universally needed but the exact methodology in going about achieving that kind of infrastructure, the time table for its completion, extent and level of quality/service and development is also something unique and subject to local conditions. This chapter also shows the importance of knowledge as all these local conditions are interesting from research and investigation point of view. Experts at each area would, through their knowledge and respective expertise, investigate the details mentioned before and present them and possible solutions of possible problems to decision makers.

This chapter was meant as a complementary to previous chapters where the reader could catch up if he was lost and briefly summarize what has happened up to this point, but also to briefly go through the remaining steps in order to be a truly successful nation.

52

Chapter Six: Maintaining Prosperity

We have until now mostly discussed the components of the successful state and how to achieve them. But too preserve this state of state we need in addition to preserve the components discussed two additional factors briefly discussed in chapter two. Note that here I will only list all the points and sub-factors of this chapter briefly as this book is more intended to be a book of economic nature rather than a military or political one. But as all these matters are linked one cannot ignore the need of going through military and political issues in order to secure economic ones. The things mentioned aren‟t anything new really but could still be good to gather and conclude.

Strength: The first of these factors is Strength. There are two main sub-factors to strength; namely the indirect and the direct strength-factors. The indirect factors are those to whom the country cannot control and therefore only can prepare against. They are listed as: 

Preparing against the most probable aggressor



Preparing to the most likely combat scenarios and battlefields



Preparing for worst-case scenarios and plan B

Nations can adopt different tactics depending on that nation‟s unique position. A small country for example would risk be overrun by a larger even if they were able to muster 20% of all able-bodied men. Therefore the small countries tactics should not be to stop the larger one in the frontlines. The most favourable approach would be to prepare for and adopt guerrilla tactics and to wage asymmetric warfare once the country was overrun as it would be overrun the defence plan was. Little resistance is to be offered but most of the preparations and resources should go to make the switch from the main defence plan to an asymmetric warfare contingency plan go smooth, and to train the troops and logistical suppliers to be able to execute their operations during the conditions of urban and asymmetric warfare all while 53

keeping the guerrilla tactics contingency plan top secret. In effect the contingency plan (guerrilla tactics) would be the main plan while the enemy believes that a frontal defence would be just that.

The direct strength-factor is a combination of many different sub-factors that the country directly can control and consists of: 

Justice



Technology level, equipment



Industrial capacity



Military knowhow; doctrines, tactics, use of terrain and so forth



Training, discipline



Numbers



Terrain

The points will shortly be discussed one by one. The first point will discuss how Justice can affect the outcome of the war and the effects of it in the war itself.

Yes, Justice is one of the key-factors for military success. Justice as a strength-factor not only includes the overall justice in society but also the justice in the war itself. Generally one can say that justice in one‟s own society increases one‟s own moral and the justice against the enemy will decrease the opposite sides moral. While if this was the opposite the effects would also be so.

If one is just towards one‟s own in a country, citizens will feel proud and honoured to be a part of such a just society and therefore not willing to let anyone remove this state of justice and thereby become willing to fight for such a cause and more ferociously. Resistance to enemy propaganda is also greater. If one is just and merciful in battle the enemy will have greater enticement to go over and surrender to the other side. This enticement would increase if on top of that the enemy‟s own society is brutal and lacks justice.

Technological level can greatly aid a military organization. One can clearly see the advantage of a soldier that can see in the dark against a soldier that is nearly blind. Besides the obvious advantage, a higher tech-level increases your own troop‟s morale. The ability to mass-produce these high-technological devices and vehicles is the next sub-factor.

Industrial Capacity is another type of knowhow not mentioned. Industrial capacity is essentially a nation‟s capacity to mass-produce in this case military materiel.

54

Military knowhow is what is taught in military academies all over the world from how to handle the logistical and operational parts of an army to how to use the terrain and weather to your advantage to the best tactics and doctrines that suits your countryâ&#x20AC;&#x;s conditions.

Training and discipline will result in a higher morale which in turn is a leading cause of victory or defeat. The Italians in North Africa is an example where if the Italians would have had higher morale they would have caused higher casualties amongst the enemy and increase chances of victory or at least reduce enemy moral. The much smaller British force captured around 130 000 prisoners from the larger Italian Force with minimal casualties. 22 The resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan are examples of how moral strengthens the resolve and determination of fighters.

Last but not least the number of troops and the use of the terrain and the weather are also what are known as force multipliers i.e. using them correctly could multiply the actual strength of your given force and the effect of this force.

There is also another complementing strength in maintaining peace and prosperity and that is unity.

Unity Unity between political entities comes in three types; economic, political and military all of which

may

not

always

be

beneficial

for

all

parties.

The first type; economic unity can be in the form of a free trade area/customs union or economic cooperation and coordination or in the form of monetary union and complete economic integration.

The customs union for example can be beneficial in the way that low tolls make it cheaper to enter the given market thereby increasing the supply and thereby decreasing the prices.

Free trading area is a given area where goods, services and capital can travel freely. The

22

A. P. Wavell, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Operations in the Western Desert from December 7 th 1940 to February 7th 1941â&#x20AC;&#x2122;, in

London Gazette. (Supplement) no. 37628, p. 3268. 25 June 1946, viewed on 29 February 2012, <http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/37628/supplements/3261>.

55

benefit of this is an increase in economic activities but at an expense of decreased security and increased competition. Therefore the optimal conditions of implementing this agreement is where the countries have the same level of crime, corruption and development, or have a past history of relatively open borders.

Trade is essentially that I give you something I donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t need and receive something that I need but you donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t. That way unnecessary excess is removed while obtaining something there was a shortage of. Agreement of trade and economic cooperation is when two nations commit themselves to do trade with each other. This agreement or commitment would be very beneficial when the aim is longstanding trade relations. Two nations that regularly export to each other relatively large amount of goods would benefit not only from a commercial perspective but also from the improvement of their respective relations. Coordinating regulations and easement of rules and regulations in addition to less tolls and bureaucracy will also increase economic activities between the countries and their overall relations. The negative about conducting too much trade is that you yourself may have a shortage of the goods you are trading although that has a low risk of happening. The other negative aspects are if you trade too much you might end up with a too large negative trade balance.

Complete integration of two markets is the final type of economic unity. This requires in addition to the two previous unities the same inflation level, economic stability, unemployment rates, the same currency and all the requirements of having the same currency.

But if such prerequisites are acquired the two markets could be completely opened up to each other, share innovations, supply, demand and so increase their competitiveness. The only question is if it is worth pursuing this goal of economic integration considering it takes time, money and considering the protectionist currents and the general will to proceed with the integration.

The second type of unity; military unity is also a useful type of unity as we concluded that there is strength in unity.

And as with any type of unity it comes in different depths. The first is a commitment of military cooperation and trade. That means joint exercises, mutual trade of military tactics and technologies and so forth. This can be committed even by neutral countries because there has been no actual direct fighting. Selling arms could be counted as a breach of neutrality as it could be seen as fighting a proxy war or indirect contributing to the fighting. The negative side of this is that this way the other country would know your training routines, weapons 56

specifications, tactics, doctrines and so forth. But that downside could be reduces to a large extent if the other country is very trustworthy.

The second step of military union is somewhat common. It includes a commitment of a part of the army to the defence of a second party in case of need. This can of course be extended to include as many nations as seen fit. This has the effect of firstly deterring any possible aggressor and secondly aiding you in your defence. The downside is that you also would have to risk war on the behalf of another nation and risk however small the risk that the other nations would ignore your call for assistance if it was you who were under attack.

This can be extended even more to include assistance in case of aggression from the unionâ&#x20AC;&#x;s part because it is very expensive to occupy a country, especially if it is far away. 23 First one has to transport all the troops to the combat theatre, and then one must face the regular army. Then one must pacify pockets of resistance and the elite troops and then occupy scarcely and densely populated areas and finally the occupation forces must deal with urban and guerrilla warfare. So military unions are not only useful for defence but can also be useful when the unions are the bellerigents. That way the burden is lifted from one nation doing everything to many doing something. The main difficulty would be the coordination. The degree of involvement and delegation of tasks could then be customized to according to the principles of the involved parties, i.e. giving and receiving according to need, according to contribution, a combination or whatever fits all the parties involved.

The third and last step of a military union is the one greatest aiding you in your defence but also the one having the greatest risk of dragging you into total war. This is an alliance and commitment to declare war against anyone whom your ally is at war with. This would require very similar and coordinated foreign policies to minimize potential conflicts of interests. If this is the case the risks with this kind of unity can be reduced. Even though, one should consider other factors such as popular opinion, resources and capabilities to wage war.

The last type, political unions encompass many types and forms. There is from the easy moral support to the harmonization of laws and educations to the complex combination of many types of harmonization and finally to the harmonization of language and laws and a combination of economic and military union to form one political entity from the former two.

23

A. Belasco, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations since 9/11.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Congressional Research Service, 29 March 2011, p. 17.

57

This political union is the most useful for essentially it is an economic unity, plus a military and a political one.

The easy moral support type of union is actually not to be considered a union but rather a step into it. The countries verbally and morally defend each other and each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x;s actions.

This could be good to have as to not isolate oneself from the world community. This is the type of relationship that characterizes countries that are made up of different political entities but might share similar moral values, ethnicity, language and so on.

The second step of political unity is when laws and regulations are being harmonized and there is an increase in joint ventures whether economic, military or other. This could be sensitive to the population in either country but if there is an acceptance and thereby legitimacy there is no major issues in regards to the continuation of the harmonization.

One would remain in step two as long as one does not go into the more difficult and irreversible aspects of harmonization of step three. This would include integration of education, healthcare, language and advanced economic and military integration. From that point all that would be needed after full economic and military union and step three political union to achieve complete political union is a political and general will.

Unity often begins as one type, most typically economic, and then it extends into the easy political unity. Later depending on the amount of political will this tends to develop to a more complex political unity in the form of harmonization and military and economic union. From that the step is not a large one to the final merging of two or more political entities into one.

Opposition to unity The main opposition to unity comes from one main category. There are many sub-categories or reasons for the opposition to union. The ease with which one can overcome these reasons depends on different internal factors and the system of government. The main opposition to unity

is

political/popular

opposition.

Other

types

of

opposition

such

as

ethnic/cultural/linguistic opposition and religious/sectarian opposition are secondary to the first type of opposition. More often than not the secondary categories are interlinked. This means that religious and ethnic differences resulting in opposition are not mutually exclusive because different ethnic groups might have different religions. On the contrary the difference 58

in both ethnicity and religion would increase such an opposition. All the differences though donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t matter as long as they donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t translate into political/popular opposition. The role of the secondary categories of opposition lies in that they provide fuel for the political/popular opposition.

What is meant by political/popular opposition? It is the opposition from either the elite or the regime against a policy of existent or proposed unity or opposition from a broad stratum of the population. In a democracy this is expressed at the Parliament by a MP or a party and they in turn have the support of their constituents. So in that case there is a political opposition which is ultimately dependent on popular opposition. In a dictatorship popular opposition might not matter so much but sometimes it causes the leadership to back on a certain policy. In dictatorships there might also be resistance to unity from within the regime itself which would count as political opposition. In both systems popular opposition can be reversed by means of propaganda or by compromise. The opposition that does not get through its demands whether partially or totally has three things to resort to: either they continue the activity to push for their view, wither out or resort to violence. So if unity is extremely desirable for the leadership they can push through their policy and in beforehand or after the implementation of the policy compromise regarding some parts and lessen the risk for armed conflict. An always present tool is propaganda whose efficiency is as great today as any other day.

In this chapter I have mapped out the different types of unities, their different depths and their advantages and disadvantages and its opposition. It is up to each country to decide what is fit for them because the advantages and disadvantages of each unity and its depths changes somewhat according to local circumstances and situations and so does the means by which to deal with the opposition.

59

Chapter Seven: Traps and Challenges

This chapter will deal with issues that will usually surround progress or that may impede progression to a successful state. All poor countries deal in one way or another with one or more of these issues. And although I will not be so pretentious so as to claim I have the solution to all of these problems, I will outline the problems and perhaps a possible solution in order for the problems to be more easily recognized and, as such, thus be more easily defeated and solved. The problems mentioned here are problems a county must always be aware of and guard against. It is not something lacking such as Food that can be produced or acquired. A country must be on the constant lookout for these kinds of problems. Next I will discuss a subject we looked at briefly earlier (p. 16) yet that I feel that I need to explore once again.

Legitimacy This problem has already been discussed in the section concerning Justice but I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t say in detail why legitimacy was so important. I have already outlined the parameters that are necessary for a ruling body to be legitimate and so we will here focus the discussion on how a lack of legitimacy can pose a problem.

There are three main problems concerning the lack of legitimacy. The first problem is the lack of tolerance and flexibility. Someone without legitimacy must be very careful as he is already hanging by a short thread. This can pose a problem in regards to investing as investment can mean a decrease in consumption. Reducing the level of standard in already poor countries to an even lower level without having the legitimacy to do so could pose a serious problem. The first things that come to mind are riots and revolts. Ongoing rebellions could be strengthened and so on. With legitimacy, however, the threshold before a revolt is triggered is higher.

Going up to a legitimate regime means first of all that the regime has right on their side and second of all that they have the general acceptance of the people. This is a problem for the rioters as the way they express their demands is not legitimate.

60

The second problem with the lack of legitimacy is the lack of stability. If, in a monarchy, an illegitimate pretender takes over the throne then the risk for instability increases greatly.

Firstly, the pretender is not as established as he would be if he had legitimacy. Secondly, many would oppose such a transfer of power because the pretender lacks the legitimacy to take over. This sets them on a collision course as the opposition will fight for the right of the legitimate claimant to the throne and would probably do so before the pretender is fully established as the new monarch. Even if they donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t oppose the pretender, the fact that they are expected to leads to a decrease in stability. This instability and risk for instability leads to less investment as it is less sure that an investment would be protected and bring about a profit.

Finally, lack of legitimacy will make a government search for alternate ways to rule unopposed. This almost always means by means of repression and propaganda. Especially repression has a terrible effect on Justice and Peace and propaganda to a lesser degree. Of course besides the costs required in upholding the repression and propaganda, of an illegitimate regime24, the negative effects on Justice and Peace will bring additional costs. All these problems have in common that the lack of legitimacy leads to turmoil, riots or instability, which then leads to a decrease in investments. We can therefore conclude that legitimacy is of outmost importance and the way to acquire it has already been discussed in chapter 3.

Loans The journey to satisfying the criterions for the successful state is not, and will not be, easy. The hardest part will be, as said in previous chapters, the investment part. This will cause lower standards of living in an already low standard country. But other hardships come in the form of traps. Among these traps, the single largest trap is loans.

Loaning is generally bad for developing countries. It is not per definition bad for developing countries but it is so when loaning is done for consumption, especially in the huge cases that concerns countries. A loan for consumption will create even bigger problems in the

24

The propaganda costs of a legitimate regime would not be great as there is no need, by means of

massive propaganda, to legitimize a legitimate regime in contrast to an illegitimate one.

61

future because, besides the loan itself, an interest must also be paid. If it uses the money for consumption then there is no increase in revenues and thereby the deficit will still be present the next year. And the country will have to borrow more money to pay previous loans. But this creates a version of the catch 22 problem. To solve the finances I have to get a loan, and to not worsen finances I must not get a loan.

So to solve this we either have to a) solve the finances not using loans and/or b) take a loan without worsening finances. Now let us consider a). This is done by two known methods; raising income and cutting expenses. Raising taxes might not always be good, especially permanent tax raises, because as Ibn Khaldun showed this will in the long run decrease economic activity. This should not be a dogmatic subject though. If there is a short-term need to raise taxes that won´t affect finances to a disproportionate degree then tax raises are very good. This is especially true if you have the legitimacy to levy them. But low taxes should be the norm and goal of the state but it should not be a dogmatic principle. The principle should be low taxes and tax-raises in case of need.

The other option is cutting expenses, which in developing countries is in no small task, due to corruption. Other areas of expenditure cuts are areas secondary in the priority of the state. These of course vary from state to state. A third option is by using the raw materials for the infrastructure model. By exporting raw materials and basically trading it for infrastructure25 the state could save a lot from corruption and bad quality that requires maintenance. For example, country A exports X tons of copper in exchange for Y schools and the training of Z domestic teachers. Country A would then benefit from the investment twofold. Besides the investment itself, the cost of building the schools and training the teachers on oneâ&#x20AC;&#x;s own would be higher. And it would be even more expensive and less qualitative because of the remaining corruption and lack of knowhow. This kind of foreign investment is good because the raw materials were leaving the country anyway. But still it comes at the cost of not acquiring building knowhow. So as soon as Knowledge has been acquired and knowhow gained, domestic companies should be prioritized.

Now we can say that the discrepancy has decreased to a certain degree but that it still is not enough. Considering option b) we could try to find an interest-free loan or something similar and more realistic; a partnership. By having others sharing costs and profits of investments, the economy could be improved. If we have a state company which is 51% owned by the state and 30% percent owned by citizens, then any profit will come to the 25

As China does in Africa.

62

benefit of both the state and citizens, but if there is any loss then the state can be said to have taken out an non-punishing, subtle and completely voluntary tax from the owners, thereby reducing the financial blow to the state yet at the same time without, or at least with reduced, discontent about this. Joint investments could also be carried out with other national or foreign companies.

Brain drain

Another problem with developing countries is the brain drain that occurs in these countries.

Brain drain is the phenomenon of highly educated people emigrating for various reasons, mostly economical.26 With their high education they are coveted abroad and have more knowledge of the outside world than their fellow countrymen. They also expect a higher standard of living that what their current environment can provide for them. They are also more aware that this higher standard of living has a greater chance of being realized abroad than at home. Obviously brain drain is a big problem as it undermines the foundation and purpose of education. If all the highly educated move abroad there is a double cost; the cost of educating them and the cost of not using their knowledge.

There are varying measures that can be taken to stop this or at least reduce this phenomenon. The most common way to deal with the problem is to provide economic incentives to the would-be migrators in order to persuade them to stay. Besides economic incentives one could offer social incentives using both the carrot and the stick. By building up an atmosphere of high status around education you could firstly encourage more people to proceed to acquire a higher education, and second of all encourage highly educated people to stay by making the social incentives to stay greater. The second social incentive is by using propaganda to convince highly educated personnel to stay by reminding of them what the State has offered by providing for an education and so on so as to induce a feeling of loyalty to the country and a sense of guilt if one would choose to leave. Of course propaganda needs to be connected to reality, so without any concrete examples in reality, propaganda would have little effect. Because it is also rooted in truth, the effects on Peace are negligible.

26

Kyambalesa, H. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Brain Drain: Causes, Effects and Remediesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, 2009, p. 1.

63

Also, by examining the specific reason for emigration one could adopt appropriate measures.

For example, if there are no future hopes because of rampant unemployment, the government should prioritize unemployment issues. Many of the reasons for emigrations could be countered by the four factors of the stable state. Many emigrate because of repression, lack of freedom and poverty. This can be countered with Justice, Peace and Food. A final extreme measure is to ban the emigration of highly educated people entirely.

Lack of market, purchasing power and investment The problems of the market and purchasing power have been discussed in the later parts of chapter four. I mention them here because they are a kind of problem that is always present and because they form a kind of trap and challenge that all nations struggling to prosper must be aware of. Therefore they deserve to be mentioned once again.

64

Chapter Eight: The Nation of Successia

In this chapter we will follow the story of the imaginary country of Successia. It is an average poor country with a population of around 30 million. The GDP per capita in the country is 1,500 USD making the total GDP 45 billion USD. There are some rebels in the southern part of the country but they are mostly not a problem. I will not go into details here of what happens in every area of the country yet rather apply the general principles discoursed earlier one-by-one and see how the country progresses.

Phase one: We assume that the political will is present and after that we start out with Justice. We start with reforming the judicial system so as to increase its independence from the government.

This will take a lot of political will because the rulerâ&#x20AC;&#x;s party/group rarely wants to free the judicial system from their yoke, even if the ruler wills it. Arresting people known for their high-profile or extensive corruption would send a clear message to the populous and public servants alike, in addition to adding confiscated money to the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x;s treasury. Although this would be popular with the people, it would certainly alienate the ruling class. Therefore, civilian control of the military is important in order to ensure that the risk of a coup or an assassination is minimized. By having the military obeying the president/king/prime minister and being loyal to him would render the rest of the ruling class impotent, even if they all would like to oust the ruler. Of course this would be difficult in countries where the ruling class and the military are one and the same i.e. in military dictatorships. But even then the ruling officer could ensure the loyalty of enough of the armed forces in order for him to continue to rule. To further attract the wider population there should be an official reform program launched where one of the points are increased transparency. Release of non-vital classified information would be a sign of goodwill. This goodwill will be important in later stages where there is going to be a need for investment. Setting up an office for combating corruption and administrative inefficiency should also be a part of the reform program. The 65

program must be concrete and stable because the program will not attract the population if it is only an empty shell, as would be obvious. Hopefully these reforms will increase the legitimacy we will badly need.

Opening up for the freedom of expression is one of the points requiring much political will.

Doing this would clear the way for open critique of the government. Although this seems like a bad idea it would actually give the government an insight as to what people are mostly complaining about. Instead of only getting undeserved praise all the time the government would have to open their eyes to the issues of the day. Although the government might think that this would increase opposition to them, governments that feel the need to repress free speech are usually not that popular to begin with. By knowing what problems the society is experiencing they could be solved in time rather than ignoring a problem until it reaches boiling point. After civilian control has reached a professional level it is time to start a real crackdown on corruption and administrative inefficiency. Corruption can be more easily combated with effective administration in place. When looking briefly at the causes of administrative inefficiency we can note the following - corruption and administrative inefficiency arises because the wrong person is put in the wrong place. Why place them there?

The answer is simple. It is in order to maintain a grip on power and thereby be able to continue promoting corruption. If you want to stay in power then these people are the right persons in the right places. Support the regime in exchange for having free hands in legal matters.

By having a will to break this vicious circle we have come a long way in breaking it. But it is the political will that can be difficult to produce. One main reason comes to mind and it is that the people benefiting from this system are the same who have the power to stop it and the same people upholding the regime. But the ultimate source of power is the gun which mainly resides with the army. By having the army on your side, replacing the corrupt officials and people will be done easily, swiftly and securely. While we are at it, with a loyal army we can also crack down on separate interests having influence in the government as we now donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t rely on these separate interests as much, as they fear being targeted by our anti-corruption campaign.

When the campaign is over the deterrent effect should be sufficient enough to allow for advancement to the next factor without concentrating too much on the Justice factor.

66

With government administration in order and public corruption in check, the reforms taken in order to establish the Peace factor will be implemented much faster and cheaper. These reforms include the freedom of information, freedom of trade, freedom of prosperity. This will allow for (his) individual prosperity from which the state could benefit from, from several points of view. First of all he would probably pay more taxes as we, like mostly all countries, use a percentage and not a per capita tax system. Secondly, he would not burden the state with the various expenses it would take to help him be successful (social welfare programs if there are any, education etc.). And last but not least he, his family and his community would benefit. This prosperity would spread and therefore reduce the load on the state even more. In case of an invention or successful business he would also benefit the economy on a larger scale than his family and community. With these reforms implemented the hope is that the mentality will change to encourage initiative and entrepreneurship, and if the current mentality is already like that then the goal is to increase this kind of thinking and mentality.

Successia, having achieved these two points, will have many volunteers ready and able to assist in this great state-building mission of ours. By having an efficient administration there is one important reform that will be swiftly introduced. It is the one which makes sure that civil service jobs go to the ones with most merits and are the best suited for the job. Ideally this would include the leader himself but it would be unrealistic to expect that much political will from the leader. From these able volunteers, the best and brightest in their respective fields will flourish. Later, when we have a higher percentage of educated people, these kinds of high status jobs will also make sure the highly educated will have hopes for the future and stave off any rampant brain drain.

Last but not least Peace requires that you make peace inside the country in order to have peace, order, stability and predictability. What we have done until now what might be done without peace, unless this disturbs the peace in the capital. So after implementing these reforms swiftly and effectively, many rebel organizations will lose their manpower recruitment pool. At the same time, offering amnesty and reconciliation at this point could be very effective, especially if the rebels see that the regime is concrete in its efforts to restore justice. The final group of rebels will be negotiated with and we will see if their demands are reasonable. The remaining hardcore rebels would probably be isolated now and easily neutralized. Of course this depends on how dogmatic the issue is, how long the conflict has been going on and so on. In Successia the rebels complained about economic inequality. By having a totally loyal army we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t need corrupt officials in order to survive as a regime.

67

That allowed us to crack down on corruption and spread out the country´s income to the poorer regions. Of course if there are any available funds, a raise for public officials could be in order. First of all to reduce resentment against the corruption crackdown and second of all to compensate for what they saw as a source of income.

By the end of the Peace-factor we will have, peace, stability, freedom and meritocracy and, in the ideal case, also a technocracy. The time required towards achieving civilian control of the military and a good judicial system (with much reduced corruption) should take no more than 5-6 years. To clear out corruption in the rest of the bureaucracy and achieve a good administration could take another two years. So we must have a persistent political will for 8 years. This is the time we will need to rid the state bureaucracy/administration from the corrupt, the inefficient, the wrongly-positioned and the ones put in positions for the wrong reasons. It is also the time it will take for the meritocratic/technocratic system to sink in the public mentality and to permeate throughout society.

These two factors have given us stability and a cheap yet strong foundation on which to build the state. Hopefully these reforms will also have the positive effect of bringing badly needed funds to the treasury. Efficient administration will reduce bureaucratic costs, a speedy and efficient judicial system will reduce crime fighting costs and bring in additional funds through confiscated funds from tax evasion and corruption crimes, fees and fines. Funds for the first wave of crackdown and anti-corruption measures can be transferred from the military (not too much from the military!27) or other areas not concerning education. Peace, stability and freedom will encourage private investment requiring no effort from the state besides implementing the reforms. Meritocracy will reduce any rampant brain drain and encourage competitiveness and reward efficiency.

Now we can begin modernizing the basic school system in order to achieve at least basic knowledge. With this basic knowledge we will hopefully be able to produce Food and a stable educational system. To do this we need a sound curriculum and enforcement. We need a strong institutionalization of the educational system and school. The concrete and easy parts that donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t take time, but only take money, can be postponed to later stages when funds are plenty. These are the parts including having modern school facilities for example. For now we need a functioning primary and secondary education as well as advanced tertiary agricultural 27

We are going to need the military to be on our side.

68

education. Simply by having Justice and Peace we can form a sound curriculum that can be quickly implemented. The Justice factor will ensure its enforcement and sound school attendance levels. When it comes to school materials and schools we, as mentioned, donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t need very luxurious materials. This is at least when it comes to primary and secondary education. When it comes to higher education we will need to spend almost the rest of our funds on modernizing and advancing it. This is partly because the knowledge base gained here can be used to more easily modernize the rest of the educational system and partly because of the need for research and inventiveness in the agricultural area. When it comes to funding we will use all the available funds we currently have, draw some from our reserves and non-essential areas to begin achieving basic knowledge i.e. basic primary and secondary education and advanced tertiary agricultural education and connected areas. The primary and secondary schools will also help the Peace factor in contributing to educate people, separating the mediocre from the genius, encouraging entrepreneurship and furthering ideas of meritocracy and creativeness.

Justice and Peace could take up to eight years to implement fully. Basic knowledge would take at least 15 years to fully achieve. Investing in Justice, Peace and basic knowledge for 23 years (if it is to be achieved completely) will take a lot of effort from the other areas. This will require extreme amounts of political will and legitimacy, especially since all of our surplus funds went to these three things. The political will is something determined by the form of government, but in the end it relies on individuals, those individuals who currently rule. We would have acquired quite a large amount of legitimacy from the Justice and Peace factors.

These, as mentioned, cost almost nothing except time and willpower. By the end of the eight years required to implement Justice and Peace we will put our newly won legitimacy to the test by investing in knowledge. The fruits of this investment requires at least 9 years to harvest and 15 years to fully achieve. But it gets easier with time as the more educated the populace becomes, the more they understand the need for investment and patience. In our case we will also need to invest small amounts in propaganda on order to achieve legitimacy.

This will help a lot in the early stages of basic knowledge when people more easily succumb to simple propaganda techniques.

By now we should be out of cash. But the legitimacy we have achieved to date would allow for a tax raise without causing too much trouble. The expenses are already cut to near minimum. Hopefully Justice and Peace would also have encouraged individual initiative and 69

thereby expanded our tax base. We should now concentrate on holding this precarious balance until: 1. the reforms sink in completely 2. the reforms changes the general mentality 3. we have educated agricultural engineers and farmers 4. and expanded the economy beyond the bare minimum

With Justice, Peace and basic Knowledge in order, and with educated agricultural personnel and a larger economy we can now focus on the Food factor. We can say that from now on it is an easier downhill battle rather than an uphill battle, because for each year we will have larger food production and other types of production, and we have overcome the hard part of Knowledge.

For food production we will, as usual, rely on state and private investments. As for the private investments we can only create the favorable conditions to encourage investments which we have done with Justice and Peace. As for state investments we need to follow the factors of production in order to produce Food. See page 39.

This plan needs to be applied for all the necessary agricultural machines, irrigation and fertilization. During this phase we will need to look over some problems that are probable to occur. This includes lack of PP and loans. To begin this massive agricultural reform and for it to have an effect we need to make sure that people can buy the food produced and that the government has the funds necessary to implement the reform. In addition to the usual measures used to stay clear from debt we should rely on private investments as a complement to government investments. This will take the load off the government but for this to come about we need to make sure that a larger section of the population gets a larger PP. This will be done through the measures described on page 43 and will of course be regulated and implemented to such an extent so that they suit our local conditions. Getting the agricultural machines, renovating or building the irrigation systems and educating the farmers will take approximately five years. Factor in another three years perhaps to reach maximum production capacity. So approximately thirty years after we embarked on this journey we have achieved a fully stable state. If the regime survived these years it should have no troubles surviving the rest. The first eight years were the toughest, before we had Justice and Peace. These ameliorated the extreme lack of legitimacy we had and thereby increased our chances of 70

surviving. From there on we still had an uphill struggle trying to get some basic knowledge.

But from there on it was a favorable â&#x20AC;&#x17E;downhillâ&#x20AC;&#x; struggle, especially after achieving Food. It took us thirty years, but it could have been done a lot faster should we have been a richer country. Justice and Peace could have been implemented at the same time and at a faster rate because we would have a larger financial and institutional capacity. Basic knowledge could also have been modernized sooner and faster and we could have begun restructuring agriculture at the same time we were modernizing the educational system. All this could have shortened the journey by 15-20 years. But whatever the time it takes, we had the will to carry out the reforms and we survived during this whole period.28

We have come a long way but still have a long way to go. One could say we are halfway there or a little less. To fully be able to realize our potential and build a very stable foundation we need to eradicate all mortal poverty, not just the part involving mortal hunger. This means that next our energies will be directed at providing shelter and clothing for all our citizens.

To help out the clothing and construction industry we need to create a (larger) demand in order to provide incitements to produce. PP was, as mentioned, one of the main problems of poor countries. By now and by having Food we have freed up some private PP but we still need to do more. We need to follow the directions in chapter four in the section concerning spreading the wealth (see page 43) to a greater extent. In these thirty years all what we have done has had the positive side effect of encouraging private investment and economic growth; through education, through guarantee of stability, justice, freedom and meritocracy and so on.

This, in addition to government investment and government-sustained growth, makes sure that there really is something to spread and share. This is the first step towards eliminating poverty of the first degree.

The second step in this phase is to modernize the concerned area of education. First of all it is a buildup of the Knowledge-factor and second of all the area mentioned will be very important in the future, not just for eradicating poverty but also for other projects. Third of all, we could check off one of the factors of production if we can educate the needed workforce.

The area that should be modernized is construction and all areas close or included in it. This includes urban planning, structural engineering, architectural engineering, civil engineering, 28

What I meant by writing exact years is that this is the time that the rulers of Successia have calculated it

would take, and is only meant as an example. Other countries could have other time tables or rates of implementation.

71

design and so on. By modernizing these areas we build up our Knowledge-factor and knowhow in general, and in construction specifically. This will allow us to begin construction at the lowest cost possible yet with highest quality possible. These architects, trained to suit our local conditions in regards to esthetics and structure, would, in addition to attracting private foreign companies, serve as a potential workforce when/if the government decides to launch a housing program. If we have the funds we should launch a housing program as soon as possible. Besides providing much needed housing and using our newly trained corps of engineers, we would earn revenues from the rents or from selling off the houses. In addition to providing a public benefit it would also act as an investment. But should we at this point be low on funds we should go for marketing our now (hopefully) highly-trained engineers and convince private companies to invest. Should we decide to begin our own program we can presume that we have the market demand and financial capital. The workforce has recently been produced by our also recently modernized educational system.

All we need now really is raw materials and means of production. These will cost something of course but the main costs, a trained workforce, has been taken care of. Means of production and raw materials can, if not produced locally, easily be imported. Raw materials are cheap and even the poorest of countries have at least some cranes, tractors and other heavy equipment.

With our production knowhow taken care of we need some practical knowhow. We need to know for example where to place building, what materials they should be made of, heat and cooling systems and so on. This will also be produced by the educational system but also result from experience, and as time progresses we will also gain this type of knowledge in construction.

We should also, if we can, build cheap accommodation providing at least the most basic shelter for our poorest workforce. They can live in these accommodation facilities for free but in return they can work for the state in any job they are qualified to work in.

When we have done this to a satisfactory degree, which is when everyone can live reasonably and have sufficient clothing, we have eliminated poverty of the first degree. It would be na誰ve to think that a zero percent goal is achievable but having a zero percent goal itself is not na誰ve, on the contrary this should be our goal.

Now we have no rush. All we have to do is uphold the four factors of the stable state and make sure no one is poor of the first degree. Subtract the funds required to do this from all our 72

funds and that is what we have to move on with concerning our next phase: education. Lucky for Successia we have an uncorrupt civil service and in this regard already a functioning primary educational system. All we have to do is slowly build upon this by creating a modern secondary educational system and expanding the modernization of the tertiary educational system. The hardest part though will be creating a hope for future academics by making sure that educated people are not going without jobs, because almost all government jobs are by now occupied and the only jobs available will be the ones created by the private sector. And this is important because first of all these are a major source of potential instability as they are usually very aware of their situation and easily frustrated with it. Secondly it discourages completion of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x;s education, and thirdly this also aggravates the problem of brain drain. But for now our job and priority is to address the issue of education itself.

Now we use what we learned from our previous modernizations of the educational system and build up our practical knowhow concerning protocol, procedure, pedagogy and use our knowledge in construction to modernize facilities. All the details of the curriculum, school schedule and subject emphasis is subject to local conditions. In Successia we will, for the primary school students for example, have a strict 09.00-15.00 schedule with an emphasis on reading, writing, math and history. As the students grow older, more freedom will be mixed with more responsibility. The schedule could still be from 09.00-15.00, yet voluntary. The only thing of importance is that assignments and homework are done in time. Also, in secondary school specialization and re-specialization, it will be made easier with broad categories of secondary education specializations. After this there will be the possibility to study an additional year of any of the other category and receive the competencies of that category. For example, a social science student could study another year and receive natural sciences competencies also. The tertiary education will also be broad in the sense that it will provide a broad basis which would simplify specialization and re-specialization, much like the body´s stem cells. These differentiate in different stages and it is only in the last stage of differentiation that the cell performs a function as a muscle cell or a nerve cell etc. Similarly a student would specialize as late as possible to so as to acquire a general knowledge base yet at the same time can acquire special competencies.

73

Phase two: As we try to keep what we have achieved in the form of a stable state with minimal mortal poverty, we should focus on the next tier of poverty, the second degree of poverty. Since we have already discussed education we should focus on getting healthcare and infrastructure.

Regarding healthcare we should focus on the most acute and spread diseases in Successia both in regards to cures and prevention. We have the doctors from our educational system and the hospitals from our now (hopefully) experienced architects. Equipment will need to be imported unless some private company has begun producing it domestically.

When it comes to infrastructure, we could divide this into two parts; transportation and public utility. In Successia we have a fairly large population yet with almost no railroads and no functioning public commuting system. This causes a lot of traffic congestion and with poor roads it causes a lot of traffic injuries. We should concentrate on building that kind of transportation that would reduce the traffic load. In our case, for example, we could expand the railroad system to connect all our major cities. Inside the cities we could either organize the existing private bus networks or create a communal bus system. Both these modes of transportation are relatively cheap and relatively easy to implement.

The second type of infrastructure is public utility i.e. water, sewage, garbage disposal, electricity, communications etc. This type of infrastructure is rather extensive and via extension thus expensive - just as with any other area we have to prioritize. But since the days of major investments in Food and Knowledge are over we could perhaps even afford to develop both types of infrastructure at the same time.

Anyway, the most prioritized of the public utilities is of course water. We need to make sure that all our cities and towns are supplied with drinkable water. The production of water should go through the process with which we have produced all other things. The distribution could be done very decentralized or centralized. We could either provide all citizens with fresh tap-water, which would be very comfortable but very expensive, or we could subsidize water bottles to local stores, or we could have trucks of water distributing water to different neighborhoods. There are of course a range of means by which to distribute water but the last two ways mentioned could possibly be the most cost-effective and implementation wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t take more than three months.

The second most important public utility is electricity. Here there should be no problem deciding which kind of fuel is best suited for our country. Any benefits to separate interests 74

that may have arisen from cutting electricity flows would have been dealt with during our crackdown on corruption and separate interests.

The third kind of public utility is garbage disposal. Here we can apply the same principal as in water distribution. We could either go to each home and handle the garbage, or we could pay locals to gather it, or we could organize neighborhood garbage disposal centers.

Depending on the exact conditions of our cities in regards to garbage levels and planning, we would take different courses of action. But as with water distribution we can quickly rule out the first option. If we choose the last option we could, where the designated areas for water distribution are, also build garbage handling facilities. Then trucks would come to each neighborhood with half the trucks distributing water and the other 50% of the trucks loading garbage. Recycling is also of great interest as we don‟t want to lose any potential production, especially as it is something that could be very profitable. Think if we would use organic garbage to produce fuel and sell it or recycle metal and sell it. By recycling we reduce waste, produce something of use and doing so with a profit.

Luckily, we in Successia have functioning telecommunications. The devices may be old compared to the rest of the world but they are at least functioning. As for sewage we don‟t have a sewage system connected to all parts of all cities but this could be improved slowly.

Especially as citizens see that garbage levels are being reduced and all other types of public utilities are being improved, we don‟t need to rush the expansion of the sewage system.

Summary: The reason that I, after having achieved the stable state, do not mention funding required or how we could go about financing the succeeding stages is that we will have time to get funds.

There exists a time-money tradeoff. In the beginning we don‟t have a lot of time and must allocate money to reduce the time it takes to complete the various factors and stages. Whereas after we have a stable state, we can prolong the time it takes by only using existing surplus funds and thereby eliminating the need to allocate from other areas.

After the stable state was achieved and poverty was combated we modernized the rest of the educational system and began to expand our healthcare system resulting in good education and basic healthcare. We also improved our infrastructure resulting in basic transportation 75

infrastructure such as a bus and railway network, but also pertaining to basic public utilities such as water, electricity and garbage disposal. If the government or any private investor would find it profitable we would also have adopted recycling with all its connected benefits.

When we have done all of this, which perhaps will take a whole generation to do so, all we have to do to is maintain this accomplishment and slowly build it up and expand it as funds allow for it. Because when we are finished we have the foundation of the modern state; the stable state and the basic level of secondary state functions, and we can therefore focus solely on maintaining and improving. We need to reinforce the factors of the stable state all the time so that they do not degenerate over time or wither away. Regarding the other state functions, we need to improve them as much as we can. We need to improve our poverty prevention and combat existing poverty, improve our healthcare, improve our educational system, and improve our infrastructure and so on. So achieving a successful state does not mean achieving a utopian one. It only means achieving a state that carries out its functions, which this state of ours hopefully now does.

76

Chapter Nine: summary and conclusion A brief summary of the general steps and principles that are needed in order to achieve a successful state in a chronological order:

1. Political will (to invest, to reform) 1.1 Stability 2. Justice 3. Peace 4. Basic Knowledge 5. Food 6. Increased wealth (production), spreading of wealth, Knowledge 7. Remaining state tasks 7.1 Eliminating poverty of the first degree 7.2 Eliminating poverty of the second degree 8. Maintain

If one is to briefly summarize everything we can say that first we needed a political will. This is needed to invest and to start to reform. The first thing we needed to reform was Justice.

This mainly concerned judicial and legislative reforms. Then we needed Peace. We opened up freedom to prosper, freedom to invent, freedom of expression and freedom to do business. We encouraged meritocracy and cracked down on nepotism and corruption. We also tried to improve relations with the outside world. After this we could easily implement school reforms and achieve at least Basic Knowledge. This was needed in order to modernize agriculture and acquire the Food factor. After this we were close to achieving a stable state. We only needed to combat mortal poverty. To do this we needed a larger economy. Hopefully, all of our previous reforms (in Justice, Peace, Knowledge and Food) would have encouraged investment and growth. If we, as a state, could also boost investment and production we should also try to spread the wealth and invest more in knowledge. We should now have enough Food and Knowledge to produce clothes and housing to eliminate mortal poverty. After that we also wanted to expand the economy in order to be able to combat the next tier of poverty yet at the same time maintain our stable state. We completed our Knowledge factor and began 77

expanding healthcare and our transportation and public utilitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x; infrastructures. Now all we needed to do was to maintain this and to slowly but surely improve upon it.

78

Bibliography: Books: E. Bradford, The Year of Thermopylae, Macmillan, London, 1980.

B. B. de Mesquita, A. Smith, The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics, Public Affairs, New York, 2011.

T. Niklasson, Regime stability and foreign policy change, Studentlitteratur, Lund, 2006, pp. 20, 21.

E. Luttwak, Coup d’état: a Practical Handbook, Harvard University Press, 1968, pp. 33-38, 167-172.

E. Uddhammar, (red). Civilisationernas kamp, ScandBook AB, Stockholm, 1993, pp. 103-106.

Essays and Articles: P.R. Hensel, „Territorial Claims and Armed Conflict between Neighbors‟, preliminary version of 9 March 2006, pp. 1-3.

H. Kyambalesa, „The Brain Drain: Causes, Effects and Remedies‟, 2009, p. 1.

A. Belasco, „The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations since 9/11.‟ Congressional Research Service, 29 March 2011, p. 17.

P.D. Feaver. „The Civil-Military Problematique: Huntington, Janowitz and the Question of Civilian Control‟, Armed Forces & Society, 1996, Vol. 23, No 2, pp. 149-150.

A. H. Maslow, „A Theory of Human Motivation‟, Psychological Review, 1943, Vol. 50, No 4, pp.

370-96.

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Electronic Sources: A. P. Wavell, „Operations in the Western Desert from December 7th 1940 to February 7th 1941‟, in London Gazette. (Supplement) no. 37628, p. 3268. 25 June 1946, viewed on 29 February 2012, <http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/37628/supplements/3261>.

E. Nash, „Arid Barcelona forced to import water‟, in The Independent. 11 April 2008, viewed on 23 February 2012, <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/arid-barcelona-forced-to-importwater-807810.html>.

M. Khan, „Iraq Between Pain and Power‟, 8 August 2001, viewed on 4 February 2012, <http://www.glocaleye.org/saddam.html>.

J. M. Dorsey, „Benghazi soccer exemplifies the battle between Arab autocrats and their detractors‟, in AL ARABIYA, 5 June 2011, viewed on 29 March 2012, <http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/06/05/151899.html>.

Swedish press support board, 14 January 2011, viewed on 19 February 2012, <http://www.presstodsnamnden.se/Presstod.html>.

Swedish parliamentary ombudsman, 12 February 2012, viewed on 18 February 2012, <http://www.jo.se/Page.aspx?MenuId=12&ObjectClass=DynamX_Documents&Language=en>.

Law 2004 – 5083 on the Currency Unit of the Republic of Turkey, 2004, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, viewed on 22 February 2012, <http://www.tcmb.gov.tr/yeni/banka/yenilira/5335ing.html>.

80

Register:

Afghanistan: 15, 55

Foreign companies: 30, 41-42, 63, 72

Agriculture: 29, 31, 34, 43-45, 50-51, 68-

Foreign intervention: 6, 13

71, 77

Freedom; 13, 23-26, 28, 37-38, 46, 64, 66-

Authority: 18, 22, 26

68, 71, 73, 77

Axis: 14 Germany: 13, 14, 21, 29 Brain drain: 39, 63, 67-68, 73

Government/governance: 4-6, 8-10, 15-26,

British: 14, 55

28-31, 33, 45, 51, 58, 61, 64-67, 69-73, 76 Greek: 15

Capital: 30-31, 39-42, 44, 48, 51, 55, 67, 72

Healthcare: 6, 9-10, 36-38, 49, 51, 58, 74-

Civilian Control: 21-23, 65-66, 68

76, 78

Civil service: 26, 67, 73

Ibn Khuldun: 46, 62

Culture: 6, 17, 19, 25-26, 28-29, 33, 58

Ideology: 5, 6 Import: 25, 40-41, 43-44, 46

Democracy: 17, 20, 39, 59

Industrial Capacity: 13, 26-27, 29, 54

Dictatorship: 20, 39, 59, 65

Infrastructure: 5, 6, 9-10, 31, 37, 45, 49-52,

Discipline: 14, 54-55

62, 74-76, 78 Iraq: 13, 55

Education: 6,8-10, 13-14, 23, 29-34, 36-38,

Italian: 14, 55

41-42, 44, 48-51, 57-58, 63, 67-69, 71-76 Export: 40, 43, 45-46, 56, 62

Japan: 29 Justice: 4, 8-12, 15-20, 23-24, 26, 29, 31,

Factors of production: 5, 39, 70-71

34, 39-40, 44-45, 50-51, 54, 60, 64-67, 69-

Factory: 30, 40, 45, 72

71, 77

Failed state: 5, 18, 38

Justitieombudsman: 23

Finland: 14 Food: 11, 13, 15, 26, 33-34, 36-37, 39-40,

Knowhow; 33-34, 39, 41-45, 49-50, 54-55,

42-45, 47, 50-51, 60, 64, 68, 70-71, 77

62, 72-73

Force multiplier: 55

Industrial/production: 30-31, 33, 72 81

Practical/abstract: 29-30, 72-73

Of the second degree: 37-38, 50-51, 74,

Knowledge: 10-11, 13-15, 27-29, 31, 33,

77

39, 44-45, 49-52, 62-63, 68-74, 77

Of the third degree: 37-38 Propaganda: 54, 59, 61, 63, 69

Laffer´s curve: 46

Prosperity: 5, 12-16, 26-28, 31, 33, 36, 53,

Law: 8-10, 16-2, 23-25, 29, 39, 49-51, 57-

55, 67

58 Legitimacy/legitimate: 15, 17-22, 24, 40,

Rashidun Caliphate: 17

42, 47, 58, 60-62, 66, 69-70

Raw material: 40-41, 62, 72

Libya: 26

Rechtsstaat: 16, 17

Loan: 61-62, 70

Regime: 13, 17-18, 37, 59-61, 66-67, 70 Repression: 17-18, 61, 64, 66

Market: 25, 31, 35, 39-40, 42-46, 48, 51,

Resources: 18, 30, 33, 40-43, 51, 53, 57

55-56, 64, 72

Riksdag: 23

Market-liberalism

Rule of law: 16, 18-20, 23-24

Means of production/production means:

Russia: 15

13, 27, 41-42, 44, 72 Meritocracy: 26, 68-69, 71, 77

Saddam: 13 Security: 6, 8-10, 20, 27, 31, 36, 51, 56

Negative freedom: 25

Stability: 8-9, 11, 20-21, 33, 50, 56, 61, 67-

Night-watchman state: 8

68, 71, 73, 77

North Africa: 14, 55

Stable State: 5, 11-12, 14-15, 20, 28, 3133, 39, 48-50, 64, 70, 72, 74, 75-77

Omar bin Abdul-Aziz: 48

State monopoly on violence: 16, 18-19, 22 State´s tasks: 5-6, 10-11, 36, 38, 48, 50-51,

Peace: 11-13, 15, 24, 26-27, 32-34, 39-41,

77

44-46, 50, 55, 61, 63-64, 67-71, 77

Strength: 13-15, 19, 53-56, 60

Political will: 4, 11, 15, 18, 34, 39-40, 50,

Successful state: 4-6, 8, 11, 16, 20, 28, 32,

58, 65-69, 77

37-38, 50 53, 60, 61, 76-77

Poverty; 9, 25, 36-38, 47, 50, 64, 71, 75-76

Sweden: 15, 23

Of the first degree: 10, 37-38, 50-51, 71-72, 74, 77

Technocracy: 68 Thermopylae: 15 1

Transparency: 17, 19, 23, 52, 57, 65

Wealth: 11, 35-38, 47-50, 71, 77

Unity: 13, 15, 55-59

Zakah:48

USSR: 14, 22

2