Good governance continues to be a thematic focus of scholarly and policy discourses, largely with little analysis of its originative historical foundation. This eschews the profundity of the concept in theorising the state. In this article good governance is considered with these questions in mind: What is good governance and how did it evolve to arrive at its current form and usage? What is the character of its conceptual problematique in the broader contemporary development discourse? In considering these questions the article starts with a reflection on the philosophical and theoretical antecedents of good governance. Plato's concept of the good and Aristotle's common good are analysed to determine the conceptual lineage of good governance. Based on this analysis the article argues that the concept of good governance does have a long ideational lineage that dates back to the ancient Greek history on the normative imperativ