Governance without government is a form of governance which uses non-governmental means of government. It is a paradigm opposing modern democracy. Modern democracy uses democratic procedures and institutions, including legislation and communicative rationality, whereas governance without government uses laws of nature instead of legislation, and one-way communication instead of dialogue.
Governance without government relates to managed democracy, and to inverted totalitarianism, dismantling public institutions and giving power to institutions where democratic claims are not valid, e.g. big corporations and secret societies.
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri describe governance without government as the method of governing an empire, by which they mean the current world-system based on Friedmanite economics and military power. Thus governance without government uses governmental agencies to promote itself.[1]
Larry Catá Backer describes the organization of economics within multinational enterprise and in global production chains as the basis for governance that in some respects displaces the traditional organization of politics in government within states.[2]