Banana republic examples

Political-science term for a politically unstable country

For the clothing store, see Banana Republic. For other uses, see Banana republic (disambiguation).

In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources. In , American author O. Henry coined the term^[1][2] to describe Guatemala and Honduras under economic exploitation by U.S. corporations, such as the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita). Typically, a banana republic has a society of extremely stratifiedsocial classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling class plutocracy, composed of the business, political, and military elites.^[3] The ruling class controls the primary sector of the economy by way of exploitation of labour.^[4] Therefore, the term banana republic is a pejorative descriptor for a servile oligarchy that abets and