Smart governance as a new stage in the development of public sector management brings many challenges to the cities of the 21st century. It opens new possibilities for how to maximize the socio-economic and ecological performance of cities and cope with negative externalities. But to achieve these benefits, it is necessary to create conditions for smart governance implementation. The paper aims to define the principles and prerequisites of smart governance development in cities theoretically and verify them in the real conditions of cities. Based on the theoretical review on smart governance paper identifies principles and prerequisites of smart governance development in cities. They are verified by research results of two sub-researches – one among the experts from academia and practices and one among the representatives of the cities in the Slovak Republic. The paper identifies also the challenges in the implementation of smart governance and the potential future research in the international context.