OK, I think an example is in order. Let's say you want to not live in a neighborhood with a bunch of weirdo dicks. The kinds of weirdo dicks that will paint the

OK, I think an example is in order. Let's say you want to not live in a neighborhood with a bunch of weirdo dicks. The kinds of weirdo dicks that will paint their house bright neon purple and erect a large statue of a dick in the front yard. But you don't want to do the actual work of coming up with a set of rules for everyone to live by. For the very good reason that that crap is hard and thankless and nobody's going to agree with every rule. So you empower a homeowner's association to do it for you. This is a form of governance empowered to set rules that the neighborhood has to follow. Residents just have to pay the dues in order to ensure that their wishes are followed. Self-management in this case is calling the cops and hoping they can sort your neighbor out. You call it governance when you have to impose rules on others. It's annoying and ugly but someone's gotta do the job of exercising the will of the many onto the few that don't feel like they should follow the rules. If you don't want to live under an HOA, you don't buy into a community that has one.