Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies. Such bodies may be called boards of directors, managers, or governors or they may be known as the administration (as in schools) or councils of elders (as in churches). As long as they make and enforce rules they are governments.

Growth of an organization increases the complexity of the government, therefore a one-horse town or a mom-and-pop store will have few officials, whereas an empire or multinational corporation will have many interlocking, hierarchical layers of administration. Moreover, as complexity increases so to does the need for formal policies and procedures.