Since the 1980s, the new public administration approach, which has had an impact worldwide, has evolved into a governance model that is considered a new stage in state-society relations. At the current stage, the governance model's management approach seeks to produce solutions to social problems through collective wisdom, involving the private sector, civil society organisations, and individuals in decision-making mechanisms alongside the state. The governance paradigm, which advocates the participation of all actors in policy-making processes initiated by the state as the most crucial element, plays a role in enhancing democracy's representational power from the local to the central level. With the governance paradigm, the state has been removed from its position as the sole dominant power, and its coordinating role has been brought to the fore. It has been observed that the horizontal network-based structure, its ability to direct resources, and its inclusion of stakeholders in the community in administrative processes, making them more effective and beneficial, have made the country's political and economic power more widespread. The governance approach supports stakeholder responsibility in the sharing of duties, authority and resources in central-local relations, thereby enhancing citizen satisfaction through advantages such as improved quality in public services, social consensus and strengthened accountability, in line with a democratic and inclusive management approach. It also envisages systems that will influence the decision-making process from the bottom up and mechanisms that enable citizen participation. In this context, the main objective of our study is to examine in detail the reasons for the emergence of the governance paradigm and why it has become necessary in public administration, its basic characteristics and principles, and the scope of action and roles of the actors that this new model incorporates into public administration. At the same time, it aims to examine how governance is applied in practice with examples from Turkey and around the world, and to evaluate the opportunities and challenges encountered.