Governance

The function of collective decision-making — how groups choose rules, allocate resources, and resolve conflicts.

Governance occurs at multiple scales: families, firms, communities, nations, international bodies. It encompasses both formal mechanisms (voting, legislation, adjudication) and informal processes (deliberation, negotiation, norm formation).

Systems Connection

Governance is the function by which a social system modifies its own structure and rules — a form of collective adaptation. Effective governance creates feedback loops between citizen preferences and policy outcomes. Failed governance breaks these loops, creating instability or capture.

See Also

• Political Economy — parent domain
• Institution — structures governance operates through
• Polycentric Governance — nested governance structures