What is the difference between government and governance Essay

What is the difference between government and governance - Essay Example The concept of governance has become prominent in the last decade, and it is considered as the modern political scenario. The notion governance covers a broad range of meanings. One of its very important scopes is the idea that, differing to the classic forms of ‘government’, modern governance is not limited to the national boarders and is not the region of professional politicians. It refers to models of decision-making, taking place in a larger set of institutions, with a broader range of performers and practices. One of the main objectives of those who preserve this new thought is indeed to enlarge the established notion of public contribution beyond the well recognized and constantly waning events of representative democracy. This most likely explains why the concept has found a favourable ground in non state polities such as the European Union. Within this kind of multi-layered polities, electoral systems only play a limited role. The European Parliament has been el ected by universal right of voting since 1979. The Council of Ministers and the European Council are not affected by European elections, and the composition of the Commission is only dependent on the results of these international elections. In this institutional system, where autonomy is pooled and accountability remains divided (Peterson, 1997), elections can not ‘throw the scoundrels out’ (Weiler, 1999). As it does not correspond to the methods of participation and accountability with which citizens are familiar, the EU is often said to suffer from an cordial ‘democratic deficit’, and its constitutional reform is the entity of a permanent debate. Improving its governance is one of the approaches recently suggested to face this major limit of European integration (Magnette, 2003). The earlier thought that national governments are the key actors in public policy and that they are able to power the economy and