Governance and Government

Governance is not synonymous with government; governance is a more encompassing phenomenon. In a world where authority is undergoing continuous relocation, it becomes increasingly imperative to probe how governance can occur in the absence of government.

Some distinguish governance as a mode of allocating values while viewing government as operating the mechanisms through which the allocation is accomplished. In some instances governance is equated with the emergence of rule-like systems and problem-solving devices.

Given an order that lacks a centralized authority with the capacity to enforce decisions on a global scale, it follows that a prime task of inquiry is that of probing the extent to which the functions normally associated with governance are performed in world politics without the institutions of government.

--James N. Rosenau