puppet regime
Strings-attached leadership
A puppet regime is a government that appears independent but is actually controlled by an outside power.
The term implies the nominal leaders take orders from a foreign state that installed them or maintains them in power, like a puppeteer working strings: The occupation forces installed a puppet regime.
The phrase is always pejorative.
- marionetteString-controlled theatrical figure
- power behind the throneHidden controller of affairs
- dominationSupreme authority held
- client stateDependent nation under patronage
- satellite stateNation subordinate to another
pull the strings · control · quisling · vassal state · proxy war · political control · authority · Mukden Incident · sovereignty · Nazi occupation · occupation · imperial rule · fifth column · buffer state · occupied territory · colonial administration · South Vietnam · collaborator
- authoritarianismautocracy, absolutism, despotism, dictatorship, totalitarianism
- shadow powerstring puller, string pulling, string-pulling, kingmaker, power broker
- tyrannytyrant, despot, tyranny, dictator, autocracy
- vassal statesclient state, satellite state, protectorate, tributary
- puppet statesclient state, satellite state, vassal state, satellite, vassal
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
puppet regimesovereign state
Fully independent country
sovereign nation · self-determination · self-rule · free state · home rule
puppet regimerepresentative democracy
Governance through chosen delegates
parliamentary democracy · democratic government · constitutional democracy · constitutional government · popular sovereignty
puppet regimesovereign power
Ultimate governmental authority
imperial power · hegemon · superpower · colonial power · puppet master
puppet, regime, puppets, puppeteer, puppetry, puppeteers, regimes