Banana Republic

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Banana Republic

A politically unstable country ruled by a wealthy and corrupt party or faction. Banana republics often are financed by one or a few cash crops, with little (or uneven) development beyond those. There is usually excessive collusion between the government and business interests.

References in periodicals archive ?

Still the end result is the Taoiseach won't be forced from office and no one will never know what was in the shredded documents or on the former commissioner's phone and that's how it should be in a banana republic.

Don't expect answers in the Banana Republic of Ireland

If Gordon Brown doesn't get the message that bank regulation needs an urgent and drastic overhaul we really are in danger of becoming a banana republic - but without any bananas to sell.

Why CBI's Lambert won't stop a panzer with a peashooter

"Switzerland is not a banana republic," fumed Claude Smadja, managing director of the World Economic Forum, during a tense press conference held during the closing days of its gala annual meeting in the ski resort town of Davos, not far from the Austrian border.