1FOUNDATIONS OF THE STATE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE: READING BREMER AND THE COUNTERINSURGENCY FIELD MANUAL

express theories about the foundations of the state. Bremer emphasizes the primary importance of a national constitution. The Field Manual emphasizes local security operations and effective governance to establish the government's legitimacy. From economic problems of agency, I argue that the foundations of the state depend critically on political leaders ' reputations for rewarding and judging government officials. This perspective suggests that the chances for successful democracy are increased when there are more opportunities for different political leaders to develop reputations for responsible governance and effective use of patronage. When social philosophers write about the foundations of the state, in the long tradition of Plato and Hobbes, their treatises may sometimes seem like abstract exercises in theoretical mythology. But the genre has recently taken a very practical turn. L. Paul Bremer's My Year in Iraq (2006) and the U.S. Army and Marine Corps's Counterinsurgency Field Manual (2007) express theories of the foundations of the constitutional state. Their theories have been used to guide practical policy-making in the reconstruction of Iraq, but we should also read them as exercises in social theory. In this paper, I want to examine the theories of nation-building that are expressed by Bremer and the Field Manual