Governance: definition
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) goes into more detail, defining governance as ‘all the government processes, institutions, procedures and practices through which the affairs of society as a whole are decided and regulated’.
The Spanish Secretary of State for the Civil Service explains that ‘governance implies a change of paradigm in administrative relations, encouraging the adoption of public policies with the participation of different public and private sectors’.
This same institution adds that ‘Public Administrations must ensure a stable regulatory framework adapted to the needs of our citizens and companies, which contributes to simplifying their relations with the different Public Administrations, improving the competitiveness of our companies and strengthening confidence in the institutions and in the quality of services and decisions’.
Main characteristics of governance
The European Commission, one of the main EU institutions, refers on its website to the quality of a country’s governance and public administration as ‘a key factor in its economic performance and the well-being of its citizens’.
For its part, the OHCHR refers to transparency, responsibility, accountability, participation and responsiveness to the needs of the population as essential attributes of good governance.
The same institution adds that ‘although there is no international consensus on the definition of “good governance”, its meaning could encompass the following characteristics: full respect for human rights, the rule of law, effective participation, multi-stakeholder partnerships, political pluralism, transparent and accountable processes and institutions, an efficient and effective public sector, legitimacy, access to knowledge, information and education, political empowerment of the population, equity, sustainability, and attitudes and values that foster responsibility, solidarity and tolerance’.
Differences between governance and governability
Although they are similar terms, they are not the same. Let us look at the differences.
Governance refers to the issues that determine a state’s capacity to exercise power effectively in response to the social demands posed by society.
Aspects such as stability, legitimacy, trust and the provision of public services with guarantees of satisfying citizens’ demands or needs are terms linked to governance.
To these issues should be added others such as the promotion of citizen participation or the establishment of different mechanisms that enable society to supervise government action.
According to the definitions of both concepts that we have explained throughout the article, we could observe that they are two different ideas of politics and public management.
Governance focuses on the outcome and effectiveness of government, while governance focuses on the process and collaboration between different actors.
Therefore, governance has a broader perspective that includes governance as one of its elements.
Thus, we could consider that the main difference between governance and governability is that the former refers to how different actors from both the private and public spheres complement each other along with governmental capacity, while the latter is precisely about this: the possibilities or capacities of a government to process diverse demands and to be able to provide adequate responses.
