In general terms, governance occurs in three broad ways:

Through networks involving public-private partnerships (PPP) or with the collaboration of community organisations;

Through the use of market mechanisms whereby market principles of competition serve to allocate resources while operating under government regulation;

Through top-down methods that primarily involve governments and the state bureaucracy.

To distinguish the term governance from government: "governance" is the concrete activity that reproduces a formal or informal organization. If the organization is a formal one, governance is primarily about what the relevant "governing body" does. If the organization is an informal one, such as a market, governance is primarily about the rules and norms that guide the relevant activity. Whether the organization is a geo-political entity (nation-state), a corporate entity (business entity), a socio-political entity (chiefdom, tribe, family, etc.), or an informal one, its governance is the way the rules and actions are produced, sustained, and regulated.