Governance refers to the arrangements for the exercise of power within a group, organisation, or society. Here, ‘arrangements’ includes anything put in place for governance, such as roles, hierarchy, rules, policies, committees, processes, or practices.
Plain Governance is an approach to designing, explaining, and assessing these arrangements. It makes explicit what the arrangements provide for and how they work. Those responsible for governance should be able to explain the arrangements they adopt and give reasons for their design and use. Plain Governance also allows users to assess acts, decisions, or conduct as they relate to given governance arrangements.
Plain Governance aims to help people understand and examine governance arrangements, including when designing or changing them. It connects an account of what the arrangements are supposed to achieve with an assessment of whether they are appropriate in the circumstances. The assessment also considers how the arrangements operate or are likely to operate.
Plain Governance aims to help users:
- describe governance arrangements in terms that minimise potential ambiguities and misunderstandings;
- focus on critical governance issues instead of procedural, operational, or implementation considerations;
- reflect on preferred governance arrangements and explain the reasons for preferring them, taking into account their purpose, nature, and risks and benefits.
Plain Governance helps to uncover unclear assignments, missing connections, conflicting requirements, and differences between the arrangements described and the practices followed.
Plain Governance focuses on the clear use of fundamental concepts, distinctions, sentence patterns, explanations, diagrams, and cases to examine arrangements and their application. It provides a general framework and guidance on considering relevant circumstances when evaluating governance arrangements.
Governance arrangements determine who can exercise power, what conduct is required of them, and how their decisions and actions can be examined. The design of governance arrangements will directly affect what people can do and what others may expect of them. Making these arrangements explicit allows their purpose, operation, and consequences to be considered and their design to be questioned.
The main benefits for users are:
- a shared understanding of the fundamental elements of governance and the nature of common governance arrangements;
- a methodical approach to assessing governance arrangements;
- an accessible vocabulary for talking about, and giving reasons for, governance arrangements.
These benefits could include feeling more confident about the appropriateness of existing arrangements, making more precise assignments of roles and authority, or giving better reasons for decisions. They could also include a more open mind when discussing governance.
Using Plain Governance carries some risks. Simplification can miss distinctions on which an arrangement depends. Familiar terms can conceal different meanings. Apparently precise wording can make a crucial matter seem settled while leaving it unresolved. Using a pattern mechanically may lead users to overlook relevant circumstances and adopt inappropriate arrangements.
Plain Governance, developed by Dr Julien Maréchal. © 2026 The Governance Practice.
Original materials: CC BY 4.0. Source. Scope and attribution.
Logos, third-party material, and website software are excluded.