All states formulate rules and try to enforce them. Barring thoroughly perverse content, any consistent, predictable set of rules is a collective good. Constructing and enforcing rules is a function that not even the mythical minimalist state can avoid. Usually, however, rules go beyond the minimalist prescription of eliminating force and fraud in exchange relations. The character of the collective good then depends on content. Some rules are primarily promotional, aimed at providing stimulus and incentives. Others take the opposite tack, aiming to prevent or restrict the initiatives of private actors.