Governance is exercised in any society and in virtually any human collective. Depending on historical, environmental, political and other circumstances, its goals, forms, methods may change. The need for management remains unchanged. The basis for the need for management is a simple, at first glance, circumstance inherent in any human collective. It is a collaboration of people within the team. It is cooperation, working together to achieve specific goals that transforms individuals into a collective. The need for people to cooperate, to work together, to work together, objectively creates the need for management. At the same time, this need always arises where there are any variants of joint activity of people. Management in this situation is a means of ensuring joint activity - a condition of its normal functioning.The article examines doctrinal approaches towards the role of state guard in the system of public administration. The study of the genesis of the emergence and establishment of state security has led to the conclusion that the institution of state guard leaders began to form since the moment of state formation, the emergence of state leaders and contradictions between them. It is concluded that state guard is not only law enforcement activity as a function of the state, but security, aimed at ensuring the security of the protected person or object. It is substantiated that in the context of reforms in Ukraine and reforms of the security and defense sector particularly, the Department of State Guard of Ukraine should be reformed into a modern security service of public authorities, and their officials. Also, a new conceptual definition of the term "state guard" is stated and suggested: "State guard is an activity carried out by a specially authorized state body in order to ensure the security of state bodies and their officials, determined by law, on the basis of the application of the system of guarded, operational and search, organizational, legal, regime, technical, informational and other measures ".