Synonyms: shadow government, permanent government, permanent state, military industrial complex
“A state within a state or a deep state is a political situation in a country when an internal organ (“deep state”), such as the armed forces or public authorities (intelligence agencies, police, secret police, administrative agencies, and branches of government bureaucracy), does not respond to the civilian political leadership.”
Wikipedia
“an intensely secretive, informal, fluid network of deep politicians whose deep state milieux effectively amplify their influence over national governments.”
Wikispooks
“A body of people, typically influential members of government agencies or the military, believed to be involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy.”
Oxford dictionary
“The Deep State is shorthand for the nexus of secretive intelligence agencies whose leaders and policies are not much affected by changes in the White House or the Congress. While definitions vary, the Deep State includes the CIA, NSA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and components of the State Department, Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the armed forces.”
Alternet
“Any network of entrenched government officials who function independently from elected politicians and work toward their own ends.”
Bill Moyers
“Individuals and institutions who exercise power independent of—and sometimes over—civilian political leaders. They applied it mainly to developing countries like Algeria, Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, where generals and spies called the real shots in nominally democratic societies and replaced elected leaders when they saw fit.”
Politico
“Career employees inside a government are working together to secretly manipulate government policy and undermine elected leaders or political appointees.”
ABC News
“The term was actually coined in Turkey, and is said to be a system composed of high-level elements within the intelligence services, military, security, judiciary, and organized crime.”
Mike Lofgren
“Citizens in Turkey, where the term originated, have long worried about the derin devlet (“deep stateâ€), which refers to a network of individuals in different branches of government, with links to retired generals and organised crime, that existed without the knowledge of high-ranking military officers and politicians.”
Economist
“Elites inside and outside the government wield power not assigned to them by the Constitution, irrespective of the will of voters”
Miami Herald
“People in the White House, the Pentagon, the State and Justice departments, Congress, and the intelligence community are leaking to the press because they have no choice in an administration where officials have unexplained links with Russia, an array of conflicts of interest, and have promoted soft forms of white nationalism and fascism that threaten basic ideals of American democracy.”
Washington Post
“a nexus of institutions—the intelligence agencies, the military, powerful financial interests, Silicon Valley, various federal bureaucracies—that, they believe, are conspiring to smear and stymie a President and bring him low.”
New Yorker