The best book on the subject is, unfortunately, "Implementation," by Wildavsky and Pressman.

The subtitle is as follows: "How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland; Or, Why It's Amazing that Federal Programs Work at All, This Being a Saga of ... on a Foundation (The Oakland project series)."

It tells the story of how, despite best efforts, unlimited Great Society funding and 99% unanimous support at federal, state and local levels, the Oakland post-riot recovery failed abysmally. Wildavsky and Pressman are exceptional in providing a systems analysis that extends to all related government programs.

It is out of print but always available.

It is the book that separates well-intentioned coinistas from public policy and planning professionals. If it had been required reading for COIN proponents, they would, in all likelihood, have understood the limits of their efforts and future prospects.

Several senior civilian reconstruction experts brought the book with them to Iraq (as I did, too). It tells us that the only viable solution is to drive market-based stabilization/reactivation, and to minimize the distortive role of government assistance (except for immediate post-conflict humanitarian needs, food security, etc...).

Witness Afghanistan now, where US funding is, in effect, the major market, distorting everything in our wake like a giant death star with its own momentum/gravity shifting power.

Reality is that much of this stuff has been tried over and over in every possible permutation of government works and jobs program, none of which have ever survived withdrawal of subsidies. Typically, it creates its own detrimental unintended consequences.