State governed the wrong way, alert (8)
I believe the answer is:
delaware
'state' is the definition.
(I know that Delaware is a American state)
'governed the wrong way alert' is the wordplay.
'governed' becomes 'led' (I've seen this in other clues).
'the wrong way' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'alert' becomes 'aware' (synonyms).
'led' written backwards gives 'del'.
'del'+'aware'='DELAWARE'
(Other definitions for delaware that I've seen before include "Award eel to US state" , "American river/state" , "state of the east" , "The First State (to ratify the US constitution)" , "State of northeast US" .)