A Starting Point: Understanding Governance, Good Governance and Water Governance - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 16

Chapter 2
A Starting Point: Understanding Governance,
Good Governance and Water Governance

Abstract Governance has been a widely and deeply discussed concept in the political
sciences. As global freshwater resources have become increasingly degraded and
impacts of climate change begin to take hold on local hydrological systems, scholars
and practitioners have increasingly recognised a crisis of governance. This chapter
presents a broad overview of governance theories and discusses the shifts from state
centric notions of 'government' to a wider range of governance modes and types, as
a way of contextualising the shift from a 'command and control' paradigm in water
governance to more decentralised, integrated and flexible approaches.

Keywords Developments in water governance ￿ Institutional arrangements
￿ Integrated water resources management ￿ Scales of governance ￿ Physical and
human boundaries

2.1 Understanding Governance

Though widely debated, governance is generally a more inclusive concept than
'government', reflecting the negotiation between society and government in effec-
tively implementing socially acceptable allocation and regulation by mediating
behaviour through values, norms and laws (Jordan 2008 ; Treib et al. 2007 ; Mayntz
2004 ). Governance is broader than just the government, incorporating both state and
non-state actors, both private and public. According to the UNDP, governance has
been defined as 'the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to
manage a country's affairs at all levels. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and
institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their
legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences' (UNDP 1997 ) .
This evolution from top down, centralised and hierarchical concepts of government
to governance, represents a shift to a new form of governing society that is more
inclusive and cooperative than the traditional ordered rule of government and concept