The system of rules, roles, and accountability structures that guide how an organization manages its resources — including data.
Governance is a broad concept that applies to organizations, governments, and systems. In a data context, governance refers specifically to the structures that ensure data is managed responsibly, consistently, and in alignment with organizational goals and legal obligations.
The term governance describes the overarching concept; data governance is the specific discipline of applying governance principles to data assets. If you are looking for the detailed data management framework, see Data Governance.
Example: A city council establishes a data governance committee with representatives from IT, legal, finance, and operations. The committee sets policies for data classification, access, and retention. This committee is the governance structure; the policies and processes it creates are the data governance framework.