How to govern without government?

Governance is not synonymous with government. Both refer to purposive behavior, to goal-oriented activities, to systems of rule but government suggests activities that are backed by formal authority, by police powers to ensure the implementation of duly constituted policies. Whereas governance refers to activities backed by shared goals that may or may not derive from legal and formally prescribed responsibilities and that do not necessarily rely on police powers to overcome defiance and attain compliance. Governance, in other words, is a more encompassing phenomenon than government. It embraces governmental institutions, but it also subsumes informal non-governmental mechanisms. Whereby those persons and organizations within its purview move ahead, satisfy their needs and fulfill their wants.

The 21st century is the century of connectivity, and people are connected ever than before. Boundaries are disappearing, citizens challenging the authorities, and military blocks are disappearing. The world is connected by economic opportunism. Hence, the prospect of world order and governance is transforming. At this turning point of history, people are oriented towards human rights, peaceful cooperation, and better living standards. 

When we look at the present-day international political landscape, there is pressure on the US not to wage any further wars and to end existing conflicts around the world. People are resisting every move of oppression and tyranny. Take the example of India, people from all works of life coming out to protest and resist the draconian NRC and CAA.  

Amidst rapid global change, the constitutions of national governments and their treaties undermined by the demands and greater coherence of ethnic and other subgroups. The globalization of economies, the advent of broad social movements, the shrinking of political distances by microelectronic technologies, and the mushrooming of global interdependencies fostered by currency crises, environmental pollution, terrorism, the drug trade, AIDS, and a host of other transnational issues that are crowding the global agenda. These centralizing and decentralizing dynamics have undermined constitutions and treaties that contributed to the shifts in the loci of authority. Governments still operate and as sovereign in several ways, but as noted above some of their authority is being relocated toward subnational collectivities. In other words, some of the functions of governance are now being performed by activities that do not originate with governments.

Governance is thus a system of rule that is as dependent on intersubjective meanings as on formally sanctioned constitutions and charters. Put more emphatically, governance is a system of rule that works only if it is accepted by the majority (or, at least, by the most powerful of those it affects), whereas governments can function even in the face of widespread opposition to their policies. In this sense governance is always effective in performing the functions necessary to systemic persistence, else it is not conceived to exist (since instead of referring to ineffective governance, one speaks of anarchy or chaos). On the other hand, the governments can be ineffective without being regarded as non-existent (they are viewed simply as "weak"). Thus, it is possible to conceive of governance without government - of regulatory mechanisms in a sphere of activity that functions effectively even though they are not endowed with formal authority.