Kitchen Cabinet

For cabinets used in kitchens, see Kitchen cabinet. For the Australian TV show, see Kitchen Cabinet (TV program). For the British radio show, see The Kitchen Cabinet.

A Kitchen Cabinet is a group of unofficial or private advisers to a political leader.[1] The term was originally used by political opponents of President of the United States Andrew Jackson to describe his ginger group, the collection of unofficial advisors he consulted in parallel to the United States Cabinet (the "parlor cabinet") following his purge of the cabinet at the end of the Eaton affair and his break with Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1831.[2][3]

The Oxford English Dictionary says that the term is "In early use depreciative, with the implication that the group wields undue influence". Its illustrative quotations show the term in use in American sources from 1832, in a British source referring to American politics in 1952, in relation to British politics in 1969, and in an American source discussing Israeli politics in 2006.[4]

  1. ^ "Kitchen Cabinet". Politics.co.uk. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  2. ^ Wilentz, Sean (October 24, 2005). The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (hardcover ed.). W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-05820-4.
  3. ^ Remini, Robert V. (September 1, 2001). The Life of Andrew Jackson (Perennial Classics ed.). Harper Perennial Modern Classics. ISBN 0-06-093735-1.
  4. ^ "Kitchen cabinet". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)