Banana republic - Wikipedia
In
political science, the term
banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the exportation of a limited-resource product, e.g.
bananas, minerals, etc. It was invented by American author
O. Henry in 1904 in reference to
Hondurasand neighbouring countries which came under extraordinary influence by multinational American fruit corporations such as the
United Fruit Company. Typically, a banana republic has a society of
stratified social classes, usually a great, poor
working class and a ruling-class
plutocracy, composed of the business, political and military elites of that society.
[1]Such a ruling-class
oligarchy controls the
primary sector of the economy by way of the
exploitation of labour;
[2] thus, the term
banana republic is a pejorative descriptor for a servile dictatorship that abets and supports, for
kickbacks, the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, especially banana cultivation.
[2]
In economics, a banana republic is a country with an economy of
state capitalism, by which economic model the country is operated as a
private commercial enterprise for the exclusive
profit of the ruling class. Such exploitation is effected by collusion between the State and favoured economic
monopolies, in which the profit derived from the private exploitation of public lands is private property, while the debts incurred thereby are the financial responsibility of the public treasury. Such an imbalanced economy remains limited by the
uneven economic development of town and country, and usually reduces the national
currency into devalued
banknotes (paper money), thus rendering the country ineligible for international-development credit.
[3]