Question

How is government related with governance?

Answer 1

It is proposed that government, being the tangible expression of the legitimate authority within an organised society, has undegone a long transformational journey since its very emergence. The various evolutionary forms and features of the government have been the product of its meaningful and viable responses to the changing expectations of the people as well as to the challenges they faced in an ever-changing environment. The exclusive domain of the state over the period became a shared space with inclusion of other actors and stakeholders, and an era of governance was ushered in since the 1980s. The much celebrated success of the liberal democracy and its market-led open economy heralded as an era of good governance. However, the universal model of good governance fails to take into account the local constraints of a society. Thus, the idea of good governance has to face various types of challenges in the developing as well as underdeveloped societies.

Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Government to Governance

Governance is the result of interactive social-political forms of governing. Focusing on governance can blur, even dissolve, the distinction between state and civil society (Rosenau, 1992, p. 4). The term governance was not heard frequently within the development community till the late 1980s, though the idea of governance is as old as the human civilisation itself. The rise in the popularity of the term ‘governance’ is closely linked with the redefinition of the role of the government towards development enterprises and managing the economy of a state in an efficient and effective manner. However, this term got wide popularity only during the late twentieth century, all thanks to the international economic and financial organisations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations Development Programme and International Development Assistance. These organisations were entrusted with the task of creating conditions of peace in the world, under the all-inclusive and ever-expanding mandates of the United Nations and the ever renewed interpretations of its Charter. Whereas in the post-Second World War period, the state was playing the role of an engine of economic progress, the notion about the governments’ competence to perform this responsibility began changing during the 1980s

Answer 2

Government is related to governance in the following ways.

• A government is defined as a group or, a system of people governing a state. Governance, on the other hand, is the manner or the way, in which a state is being governed.
• Governance helps in balancing and keeping a check on the powers of the members of the government, as well as their accountability. It is the act of ruling or governing.
• Governance deals with the processes and structure for decision making, and the behavior of the top entities.

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