Shadow Government

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. In a parliamentary system, the largest opposition party often refers to itself as a shadow government and, if it is sufficiently large, it may also have a Shadow Cabinet in which top opposition leaders shadow the policies and actions of the corresponding cabinet ministers. They are prepared to assume the respective ministries of responsibility should their party come to power in an election. For example, in Britain the largest opposition party's defence spokesman might refer to themselves as the Shadow Defence Secretary. Smaller parties may also have spokespeople, but these do not generally use shadow names. It is also used as a somewhat pejorative term to denote a government that takes over in the event of a disaster. Guerrillas sometimes have equivalent structures to the present government in hopes that when the guerrilla-group overthrows the present government, the guerrilla-forces will more easily be able to transition from militarist to administrative capacity.