government vs governance Government and governance are two words that sound similar but are different in meaning.

Difference between government and governance is confusing for many people, and this article intends to clarify the meaning and definition of the two words so as to leave no scope for confusion. An analogy can be drawn between officer and official and also bureaucrat and bureaucracy if we wish to understand difference between government and governance. Government This is a body that comprises a person or a group of persons who run the administration of a country. This is a means in which power is exercised. There are various forms of governments such as democracy or autocracy but this article will remain confined to the general term government which is commonly used in social sciences. In normal circumstances, a state is run by a government that has a mandate from the people to run the affairs of the country and also a term that may be of 4-6 years to serve the state. Thus there is a succession of governments in any country or the same government may be elected again for a successive term if people feel that it has done its job of running the country in a fair and close to ideal manner. Governance The word governance refers to the activities of a government. In laymans terms, it is the rules and laws made by the government that are sought to be implemented through a chosen bureaucracy which is referred to as governance. The process of governing people or a state is called governance. Difference between government and governance To understand the differences between government and governance, one can take the example of a business which is handled by a person or group of persons (called partners or owners). The way they run the business with the help of employees applying their knowledge and experience is called management. In a similar manner, government is the elected body of representatives headed by a person. This body has the mandate to rule or govern people. And the manner in which they use the established system and principles to run the affairs of the country is called governance. Governance can be good or bad depending upon the perception of the people and they may accordingly choose to retain or vote a particular government out of power. In nutshell, governance is what a government does. It is the exercise of powers that are bestowed upon the government according to set rules and regulations using a system of bureaucracy that defines governance. Government is merely an instrument for the purpose of governance.

FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT
There are two functions of government: constituent and ministrant. Constituent functions are those which constitute the very bonds of society and are compulsory in nature. Examples are keeping of order and providing for the protection of persons and property; the fixing of the legal relations between man and wife, and between parents and child; the regulation of property and the determination of contract rights; the definition and punishment of crime, the administration of justice, the determination of political duties, privileges, and relations of citizens, dealings of the state with foreign powers, the preservation of the state from external danger and the advancement of international interest.

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Ministrant functions are those that are undertaken only by way of advancing the general interests of society and are merely optional. Examples are public works, public education, public charity, health and safety regulations and regulations of trade and industry.

Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of decisionmaking or leadership processes. In modern nation-states, these processes and systems are typically administered by agovernment. When discussing governance in particular organisations, the quality of governance within the organisation is often compared to a standard of good governance. In the case of a business or of a non-profit organization, governance relates to consistent management, cohesive policies, guidance, processes and decision-rights for a given area of responsibility. For example, managing at a corporate level might involve evolving policies on privacy, on internal investment, and on the use of data. To distinguish the term governance from government: "governance" is what a "governing body" does. It might be a geo-political entity (nation-state), a corporate entity (business entity), a socio-political entity (chiefdom, tribe, family, etc.), or any number of different kinds of governing bodies, but governance is the way rules are set and implemented.

Origin of the word

The word governance derives from the Greek verb [kuberno] which means to steer and was used for the first time in a metaphorical sense by Plato. It then passed on to Latin and then on to many languages.[1] [edit]Processes

and governance

As a process, governance may operate in an organization of any size: from a single human being to all of humanity; and it may function for any purpose, good or evil, for profit or not. A reasonable or rational purpose of governance might aim to assure (sometimes on behalf of others) that an organization produces a worthwhile pattern of good results while avoiding an undesirable pattern of bad circumstances. Perhaps the moral and natural purpose of governance consists of assuring, on behalf of those governed, a worthy pattern of good while avoiding an undesirable pattern of bad. The ideal purpose, obviously, would assure a perfect pattern of good with no bad. A government comprises a set of inter-related positions that govern and that use or exercise power, particularly coercive power. A good government, following this line of thought, could consist of a set of inter-related positions exercising coercive power that assures, on behalf of those governed, a worthwhile pattern of good results while avoiding an undesirable pattern of bad circumstances, by making decisions that define expectations, grant power, and verify performance.

Politics provides a means by which the governance process operates. For example, people may choose expectations by way of political activity; they may grant power through political action, and they may judge performance through political behavior. Conceiving of governance in this way, one can apply the concept to states, to corporations, to non-profits, to NGOs, to partnerships and other associations, to project teams, and to any number of humans engaged in some purposeful activity. [edit]Different

definitions

The World Bank defines governance as: the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources for development.[2] The Worldwide Governance Indicators project of the World Bank defines governance as: The traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised. [3] This considers the process by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced; the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies and the respect of citizens and the state of the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them. An alternate definition sees governance as: the use of institutions, structures of authority and even collaboration to allocate resources and coordinate or control activity in society or the economy .[4] According to the United Nations Development Programme's Regional Project on Local Governance for Latin America: Governance has been defined as the rules of the political system to solve conflicts between actors and adopt decision (legality). It has also been used to describe the "proper functioning of institutions and their acceptance by the public" (legitimacy). And it has been used to invoke the efficacy of government and the achievement of consensus by democratic means (participation). [5] According to the Governance Analytical Framework (GAF), [6][7] governance can be defined in broader terms. It refers to the "processes of interactions and decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problem, that lead to the creation, reinforcement or reproduction of social norms and institutions". Governance processes are found in any society, and they can be analyzed from a nonnormative perspective, the GAF. The proposed method is based on five analytical tools: problems, actors, social norms, processes and nodal points. The GAF was developed in the context of the research programme NCCR North-South,[8] and on the basis of a critique of existing approaches to governance. [edit]The

state and politics

It is useful to note the distinction between the concepts of governance and politics. Politics involves processes by which a group of people (perhaps with divergent opinions or interests) reach collective decisions generally regarded as binding on the group, and enforced as common policy. Governance, on the other hand, conveys the administrative and process-oriented elements of governing rather than its antagonistic ones. Such an argument continues to assume the possibility of the traditional separation

between "politics" and "administration". Contemporary governance practice and theory sometimes questions this distinction, premising that both "governance" and "politics" involve aspects of power. In general terms, governance occurs in three broad ways:

1. Through networks involving public-private partnerships (PPP) or with the collaboration of

community organisations;

2. Through the use of market mechanisms whereby market principles of competition serve to
allocate resources while operating under government regulation;

3. Through top-down methods that primarily involve governments and the state bureaucracy.
These modes of governance often appear in terms of hierarchy, markets, and networks - but also in democracies. For instance, the tripartite governance of the United States consists of three branches of power (the Executive, the Legislature and the Supreme Court). [edit]Corporate

organizations

Corporate organizations often use the word governance to describe both:

1. The manner in which boards or their like direct a corporation

2. The laws and customs (rules) applying to that direction [edit]Fair

governance

A fair governance implies that mechanisms function in a way that allows the executives (the "agents") to respect the rights and interests of the stakeholders (the "principals"), in a spirit ofdemocracy. [edit]Types [edit]Global

of governance
governance

Main article: Global governance Global governance is defined[by whom?] as "the complex of formal and informal institutions, mechanisms, relationships, and processes between and among states, markets, citizens and organizations, both interand non-governmental, through which collective interests on the global plane are articulated, right and obligations are established, and differences are mediated". In contrast to the traditional meaning of "governance", some authors like James Rosenau have used the term "global governance" to denote the regulation of interdependent relations in the absence of an overarching political authority. [9] The best example of this is the international system or relationships between independent states. The term, however, can apply wherever a group of free equals needs to form a regular relationship. [edit]Regulatory

governance

Main article: Regulatory governance Regulatory governance reflects the emergence of decentered and mutually adaptive policy regimes which rests on regulation rather than service provision or taxing and spending. [10] The term captures the tendency of policy regimes to deal with complexity with delegated system of rules. It is likely to appear in arenas and nations which are more complex, more global, more contested and more liberally democratic.

[11]

The term builds upon and extends the terms of the regulatory state on the one hand and governance on the other. While the term regulatory state marginalize non-state actors (NGOs and Business) in the domestic and global level, the term governance marginalize regulation as a constitutive instrument of governance. The term regulatory governance therefore allow us to understand governance beyond the state and governance via regulation. [edit]Corporate

governance

Main article: Corporate governance Corporate governance consists of the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way people direct, administer or control a corporation. Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the many players involved (the stakeholders) and the corporate goals. The principal players include the shareholders, management, and the board of directors. Other stakeholders include employees, suppliers, customers, banks and other lenders, regulators, the environment and the community at large. The first documented use of the word "corporate governance" is by Richard Eells (1960, pg. 108) to denote "the structure and functioning of the corporate polity". The "corporate government" concept itself is older and was already used in finance textbooks at the beginning of the 20th century (Becht, Bolton, Rell 2004). These origins support a multiple constituency (stakeholder) definition of corporate governance. [edit]Project

governance

Main article: Project governance The term governance as used in industry (especially in the information technology (IT) sector) describes the processes that need to exist for a successful project. [edit]Information

technology governance

Main article: Information technology governance IT governance primarily deals with connections between business focus and IT management. The goal of clear governance is to assure the investment in IT generate business value and mitigate the risks that are associated with IT projects.[12] [edit]Participatory

governance

See Kafue River article, section Participatory governance Participatory governance focuses on deepening democratic engagement through the participation of citizens in the processes of governance with the state. The idea is that citizens should play a more direct roles in public decision-making or at least engage more deeply with political issues. Government officials should also be responsive to this kind of engagement. In practice, participatory governance can supplement the roles of citizens as voters or as watchdogs through more direct forms of involvement. [13] [edit]Non-profit

governance

Non-profit governance focuses primarily on the fiduciary responsibility that a board of trustees (sometimes called directorsthe terms are interchangeable) has with respect to the exercise of authority over the explicit public trust that is understood to exist between the mission of an organization and those whom the organization serves.[14]

[edit]Orders

of governance

With the process of governing now involving a variety of private as well as public actors, governance is becoming an increasingly complex issue.[15] More traditional theories of conceptualizing and understanding governance (such as the Westminster system) are now considered unsuitable, as they are too "government-oriented"[16] and are unable to examine the more complex, modern nature of interactions between governing actors.[17] This is where the 'Orders of Governance' conceptualisation comes in. It breaks down governance into three different orders, first, second and meta, which "correlate to the different levels at which governance is used"[18] and allow for a more detailed analysis of the governing process. [edit]First-order First-order governance is the level at which problems are identified and solutions enacted. This is done through interaction between the governing organisation and its citizens [19] which helps identify what the problem is, who is experiencing it and what an appropriate solution may be. There can be differing opinions in an organisation as to what constitutes a problem and there is, to some extent, a degree of subjectivity in coming up with an "ordered problem definition". [20] The interaction with those being governed helps in this respect as it legitimises the definition. Once a problem is identified, a solution usually comes in the form of laws and/or regulations passed by the governing body. [edit]Second-order Second-order governance is the level at which the "institutional arrangements" are provided "within which first order governing takes place".[19] Institutional arrangements can take many forms in both the public (a regulatory agency) and private (the financial market) sectors. What is important is that a framework is provided that enables first-order governance to take place. Again, there is a distinct "two-way role" at this level with both "those being governed and those governing" [21] having input into the process to provide an effective and legitimate institutional setting. This approach enables a more comprehensive analysis of governing interactions, as actors can often "be influenced by institutions (and the way) these help or hinder them" in the pursuit of their goals.[22] [edit]Metagovernance "Metagovernance" is widely defined as the "governing of governing". [23] It represents the established ethical principles, or 'norms', that shape and steer the entire governing process. It is important to note that there are no clearly defined settings within which metagoverning takes place, or particular persons who are responsible for it. While some[who?] believe metagoverning to be the role of the state which is assumed to want to steer actors in a particular direction, it can "potentially be exercised by any resourceful actor"[24] who wishes to influence the governing process. Examples of this include the publishing of codes of conduct at the highest level of international government, [25] and media focus on specific issues [18] at the socio-cultural level. Despite their different sources, both seek to establish values in such a way that they become accepted 'norms'. The fact that 'norms' can be established at any level and can then be used to shape the governance process as whole, means metagovernance is part of the both the input and the output of the governing system.[26] [edit]Measuring

governance

Further information: Good governance

Over the last decade,[when?] several efforts have been conducted in the research and international development community in order to assess and measure the quality of governance of countries all around the world. Measuring governance is inherently a controversial and political exercise. A distinction is therefore made between external assessments, peer assessments and self-assessments. Examples of external assessments are donor assessments or comparative indices produced by international non-governmental organisations. An example of a peer assessment is the African Peer Review Mechanism. Examples of self-assessments are country-led assessments that can be led by government, civil society, researchers and/or other stakeholders at the national level. One of these efforts to create an internationally comparable measure of governance and an example of an external assessment is the Worldwide Governance Indicators project, developed by members of the World Bank and the World Bank Institute. The project reports aggregate and individual indicators for more than 200 countries for six dimensions of governance: voice and accountability, political stability and lack of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, control of corruption. To complement the macro-level cross-country Worldwide Governance Indicators, the World Bank Institute developed the World Bank Governance Surveys, which are country-level governance assessment tools that operate at the micro or sub-national level and use information gathered from a countrys own citizens, business people and public sector workers to diagnose governance vulnerabilities and suggest concrete approaches for fighting corruption. A new World Governance Index (WGI)[27] has been developed and is open for improvement through public participation. The following domains, in the form of indicators and composite indexes, were selected to achieve the development of the WGI: Peace and Security, Rule of Law, Human Rights and Participation, Sustainable Development, and Human Development. Additionally, in 2009 the Bertelsmann Foundation published the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI), which systematically measure the need for reform and the capacity for reform within theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The project examines to what extent governments can identify, formulate and implement effective reforms that render a society well-equipped to meet future challenges, and ensure their future viability. [28] Examples of country-led assessments include the Indonesian Democracy Index, monitoring of the Millennium Development Goal 9 on Human Rights and Democratic Governance in Mongoliaand the Gross National Happiness Index in Bhutan. [edit]Seat

of government

See: capital city for details and list of national capitals for each country's seat of government. The seat of government is defined by Brewer's Politics as "the building, complex of buildings or city from which a government exercises its authority".[29] The seat of government is usually located in the capital. In some countries the seat of government differs from the capital, e.g. in the Netherlands where The Hague is the seat of government and Amsterdam is the de jure capital of the Netherlands. In most, it is the same city, for example Moscow as the capital and seat of government of Russia. In the United Kingdom, the seat of government is London, the capital, or more specifically the City of Westminster.