The Oxford English Dictionary defines governance as the act, manner, fact or function of governing, sway, control. To govern is to rule with authority, to exercise the function of government, to sway, rule, influence, regulate, determine, to conduct oneself in some way; curb, bridle (ones passions, oneself), or to constitute a law for. Governing is, therefore, a whole range of actions, initiatives and response patterns - from rule through influence to self-control and self-regulation. By inference it includes driving as well as steering. Therefore, in seeking to define governance and the purpose it is to achieve, it is necessary to give adequate consideration to its antitheses freedom and individualism. Governance as such has been largely taken for granted in the past. Something that does not require a systematic and detailed analysis, efforts or commitment of resources. For most of human existence governance has been imposed on the majority by a small elite, this form of governance depended on curtailing the freedom of the ruled in order to maximize the power of the rulers. The monopolizing of power by rulers made it virtually impossible for defects in governance either to be recognized by the ruled or to be challenged by them. Governance has gone by default since regimes did not share decisions with their subjects but left them to suffer the consequences of failure.In more recent times the growth of democracy together with the waning of communism and other extreme regimes has led to increasing concern at undue concentrations of power and its misuse. The loss or depreciation of long accepted models has created intellectual turmoil and a search for better processes of governance. Thus emerged the modern concept of governance based on the foundation that untrammeled personal freedom is akin to lawlessness. Such an employment of personal freedom requires a strict internal discipline or self governance that is rare. If we admit the c...
