To Shadow Means to Follow or to Shade

In some U.S. political circles (mostly those on the far right), people claim we have a national shadow government. They say there is a group of powerful people who are not in government, but who actually make all the major decisions of government-- and make them in their own interest, with no accountability.

They point to a small group of people who, as the members of this shadow government, run organizations affiliated with, but not directly controlled by, elected leaders. They are concerned that doing business this way circumvents the United States Constitution. That’s because non-government actors are free from the various constitutional constraints which legally restrict the actions of government officials.

In the British parliamentary system, there is another sort of institution, known as the shadow cabinet, which actually exists. The shadow cabinet consists of elected leaders and other members of the minority party, the party not in power. Its job is to critique the leaders and policies of the majority party.

For each actual cabinet position occupied by a majority party member, there is a corresponding shadow cabinet position filled by a minority party member. The shadow members track their counterparts in the actual cabinet, and draw attention to actions and policies that are of concern. You can read about the current Conservative Party shadow cabinet here.

A shadow government is illegitimate and harmful to democracy because, as the very name implies, it operates outside of the sunshine of the democratic process. But a shadow cabinet as described above, despite its unfortunate name, serves a legitimate democratic function.

The shadow cabinet is the very definition of the loyal opposition. Its members often oppose the policies of the majority, but it is done out of loyalty to the laws of the country and in the spirit of the system, which demands thorough discussion and debate in decision-making.

In other words, a shadow government is a small group of well-connected people ‘pulling the strings’ of government, while a shadow cabinet is about open and accountable debate in the public interest. So, a shadow government would be more appropriately be called a shady government, and we hope there’s nothing like that at work in Geneva. But, we think, a shadow cabinet is not such a bad idea.