Abstract
Good governance, first appeared in the nineties within the United Nations, the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund refers to describe how public organizations best conduct public affairs
and deliver public goods and services. Today, about three decades later good governance seems to
be still popular since there are still many challenges ahead for many governments especially in lessdeveloped
and developing countries. This paper revisits that good governance incorporates some representative principles of an ideal state. What is an ideal state? What are the canons of an ideal state? What are the main
characteristics of good governance based on ideal state? These and similar questions are the subject
matter of this introductory paper.