sofa governmentnoun [ U ]
uk/ˈsəʊ.fə ˌɡʌv.ən.mənt//ˈsoʊ.fə ˌɡʌv.ɚn.mənt/UK informala way of governing a country in which a leader often takes advice from an unofficial group of people who are close to him or her:
He criticized Blair's style of "sofa government" in which Cabinet colleagues were frequently sidelined and ignored.