This paper proposes a comprehensive, merit-based reform agenda to reshape state government in line with private-sector performance principles. Our core thesis is that states should orient incentives toward merit at every level of government service while nurturing an administrative culture of intellectual humility and restraint. In practice, this means empowering governors and agency leaders to reward high performers and remove poor performers, instituting rigorous performance management and accountability systems, and recruiting top talent with competitive merit-based processes and exams. An emphasis on intellectual humility and restraint further implies that civil servants adopt a service-oriented mindset―recognizing the limits of their knowledge and authority, avoiding bureaucratic overreach, and faithfully executing policy choices made by elected officials rather than advancing personal or ideological agendas.