Shadow government (conspiracy)

The shadow government (cryptocracy, secret government, or invisible government) is a family of conspiracy theories based on the notion that real and actual political power resides not with publicly elected representatives but with private individuals who are exercising power behind the scenes, beyond the scrutiny of democratic institutions.

Quotes

 * The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson.
 * Franklin D. Roosevelt, letter to Col. Edward Mandell House (21 November 1933)


 * Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the ﬁrst task of statesmanship.
 * President Theodore Roosevelt, "Declaration of the Principles of the Progressive Party" (1912), in Theodore Roosevelt, an Autobiography, p. 578


 * ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται.
 * The whole world is under the control of the evil one.
 * First Epistle of John 5:19