corridors of power

1. The offices of powerful leaders. For example, As clerk to a Supreme Court justice, Jim thought he'd get his foot inside the corridors of power. This term was first used by C.P. Snow in his novel Homecomings (1956) for the ministries of Britain's Whitehall, with their top-ranking civil servants. Later it was broadened to any high officials.

Example Sentences

Or should they hold firm to their radical principles, more at home protesting outside the corridors of power than cutting deals in the back rooms?

From BBC

But when his latest exposé for a local publication calls into question a prominent Tulsa family, his investigation takes him on a dangerous road from the city’s seedy underbelly to its highest corridors of power.

From Los Angeles Times

But in the corridors of power in the U.S. and Europe, they and their Qatari paymasters don suits and ties, rebrand as “moderates” and leverage media credulity and overly generous legal protections to plant ideological roots.

From Los Angeles Times

It extends into the global corridors of power and capital.

From Salon

But it was in the corridors of power where he faced his first public fight, in a row with the council's chief executive Monica Fogarty, after he asked for a Progress Pride Flag to be removed from outside Shire Hall in Warwick.

From BBC

Related Words

• hierarchy 
• ruling class www.thesaurus.com