Aid and state building -- Why are state revenue sources relevant? -- Tax states -- Aid-dependent states -- The effects of oil revenue -- Distinction between aid and oil-revenue rentier effects -- Conclusion -- Reliance on external revenue : Afghanistan from 1747 to 2000 -- The society : an inheritance of history -- Relying on tribute for state building : the importance of external revenue to the Durrani empire (1747-1824) -- The Durrani empire ineffective tax system -- Subsidies and state building : the loss of tribute and search for alternative revenue (1824-1879) -- Institution building -- Consolidation of a modern buffer state (1880-1919) : the significance of subsidies and external military support -- And military administration -- State-society relations -- Amanullah Khan's reforms : the loss of subsidies, budget surplus and fiscal decline (1919-1929) -- Foreign aid and state building : reshaping the state building process (1929-1978) -- The rise of a weak aid-based rentier state -- Decline in foreign aid -- The state and the Mujahidin Tanzims (organizations) and sources of revenue : conflict in state-society relations (1978-2000) -- The Mujahidin government financial crises and Pakistani aid to the Taliban -- Conclusion -- Rebuilding an aid-based rentier state -- Establishing a new political order -- Building the state institutions -- Responding to the flow of aid -- Chaotic aid coordination : a challenge for state building -- Access to foreign aid : a prime focus -- Improving fiscal management -- Aid modality : undermining institution building -- Government preoccupation with foreign donors -- Relations at the administration level -- Relations in regard to senior appointments -- Conclusion -- Reforms and setbacks : rebuilding the revenue system -- State revenue sources -- Aiding the revenue reforms -- Reforming revenue policy and laws -- Reforming revenue administration -- Improving revenue infrastructure -- Confrontation and consultation -- Failing to enforce tax compliance -- Failing to prevent illegal taxation and extortion -- Ambiguity to end aid-dependency -- Fragmenting the tax system -- Conclusion -- Budget spending : fiscal fragmentation and patronage -- Some improvements in government budget transparency -- The citizen's role -- Underreported on-budget items -- Poor off-budget transparency -- Secret cash payments -- Conclusion -- Interactions between the state and society -- Reinforcing the state-society inherited gap -- Commanders -- Traditional actors -- Urban intelligentsia -- Reshaping the state-society relations -- Building and undermining the state -- Conclusion -- Conclusion : findings and implications -- Path dependency : Afghan state reliance on external revenue -- Building and undermining the state : Afghanistan after 9/11 -- Upward accountability to donors -- Creating a parallel public sector -- Paradoxical tax outcomes -- Divergence in state-society fiscal relations -- The future -- Implications fo externally aided state building.