Soft and Hard Infrasctucture

On the first day of the constitutional convention Edmund Randolph explained that the purpose of the new constitutional system was, first, to secure against external invasion and, second, to secure against internal insurrection. The third was to provide mutually beneficial services, which means infrastructure. 

There are two general types.

- Hard Infrastructure: 

Hard infrastructure, also known as tangible or built infrastructure, is the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, ports, and harbors, among others, as opposed to the soft infrastructure or "intangible infrastructure of human capital in the form of education, research, health and social services and "institutional infrastructure" in the form of legal, economic and social systems.

This article delineates both the capital goods, or fixed assets, and the control systems, software required to operate, manage and monitor the systems, as well as any accessory buildings, plants, or vehicles that are an essential part of the system. Also included are fleets of vehicles operating according to schedules such as public transit buses and garbage collection, as well as basic energy or communications facilities that are not usually part of a physical network, such as oil refineries, radio, and television broadcasting facilities.

- Soft Infrastructure: 

Soft infrastructure is all the services that are required to maintain the economic, health, cultural and social standards of a population, as opposed to the hard infrastructure, which is the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges etc. It includes both physical assets such as highly specialised buildings and equipment, as well as non-physical assets, such as communication, the body of rules and regulations governing the various systems, the financing of these systems, the systems and organisations by which professionals are trained, advance in their careers by acquiring experience, and are disciplined if required by professional associations. It includes institutions such as the financial and economic systems, the education system, the health care system, the system of government, and law enforcement, and emergency services.

The essence of soft infrastructure is the delivery of specialized services to people. Unlike much of the service sector of the economy, the delivery of those services depends on highly developed systems and large specialized facilities, fleets of specialized vehicles or institutions.