banana republic

plural banana republics

1. derogatoryidiomaticgovernmentA small country, especially one in Central America or the West Indies, that is dependent on a single export commodity (traditionally bananas) and that has a corrupt, dictatorial government.

   At that time we had a treaty with about every foreign country except Belgium, and that banana republic, Anchuria.

   1901 May 28, O. Henry, “Money Maze”, in Ainslee's Magazine, volume vii, number 4, New York, page 305

   2 more examples

   The banana workers of this former banana republic were exceptionally well organized and effective in their demands from the very beginning of the revolution.

   2001, Cindy Forster, The Time of Freedom: Campesino Workers in Guatemala's October Revolution, University of Pittsburgh Press, →ISBN, page 117

   The McCanns, it is hinted and sometimes expressed explicitly, cannot possibly be treated fairly under this inadequate Portuguese system. There is a touch of arrogant xenophobia here, as if Portugal was some backward banana republic […]

   2007 September 10, Marcel Berlins, “Media have rushed to judge Portuguese police”, in The Guardian