shadow governments
Secret parallel authority
A shadow government is a group believed to exercise real political power behind the scenes while official leaders serve as figureheads.
The term appears in conspiracy theories about hidden elites controlling nations: The shadow government pulls the strings while presidents come and go.
In parliamentary systems, shadow government (or shadow cabinet) has a legitimate meaning—the opposition party's team of spokespersons who would take ministerial positions if their party won power.
- undergroundBelow ground or countercultural
- hush-hushHighly confidential matter
- conspiracyClandestine coordinated scheming
- deep stateCovert governmental power structure
- power behind the throneHidden controller of affairs
puppet masters · pulling the strings · whistleblowers · manipulation · cabals · covert · secret societies · smoke filled rooms · clandestine · off the books · politics · sleeper agents · secrecy · parallel · powers · invisible hand · authorities · hidden agendas
- elite poweroligarchy, plutocracy, oligarch, plutocrat, oligarchs
shadow governmentsconstitutional government
Regime bound by charter
democratic government · public administration · legal authority · state apparatus
shadow, government, shadows, shadowy, shadowed, shadowing, overshadow, overshadowed, overshadowing