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Banana Republic: Difference between revisions
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Any backwards tropical country (almost always fictitious, more often than not Latin American), that is ruled by a small corrupt clique. Also known in Spanish as "República Bananera" or "República del Plátano". Usually a [[People's Republic of Tyranny]] or a [[Puppet State]]. Will probably contain [[Jailbird of Panama|Jailbirds of Panama.]]
The terms has its origins in the [[wikipedia:United Fruit Company|United Fruit Company]], an honest-to-god [[Mega Corp]] with a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] approach. With the help of their buddies in the CIA, and some "well-intentioned" American presidents, United Fruit created countless US-friendly military dictatorships throughout the tropics dedicated to growing '''''bananas'''''. In these countries, United Fruit paid extremely low wages and close to zero taxes. Marxist and Maoist guerrillas surfaced everywhere<ref>[[Mexico]] was pretty much the one and only country between the US and Antarctica that still had a "democratic" government, and even then, the left-leaning ''Partido Revolucionario Institucional'' (PRI) held a near-dictatorial monopoly on power until [[The Nineties]].</ref>, and a cycle of civil wars and dictatorial overthrows ensued.
Since it was usually the Communists who opposed the dictatorships <ref>(even though they didn't necessarily establish democratic/egalitarian societies once they got to power; see Cuba)</ref>, in Latin America, the term is associated with countries that have governments that are controlled by multinational corporations, and not with just ''any'' decadent dictatorship per se. In Europe and the U.S, the connotation tends to fall more closely with that of any dictatorship in any tropical country, capitalist, socialist, or what have you. Although, possible exceptions notwithstanding, there aren't really any left in Latin America these days, [[Truth in Television|they can still be found]] in Africa and Southeast Asia.
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* A mild version in [[Michiko to Hatchin]]. There are police, but they're rarely there when you need them. However, since the main character ''is'' [[Dark Action Girl|a criminal]], the law's absence may be justified.
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* In ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]] For President'', "Slippery Jim" diGriz goes up against a planetary dictator by exploiting his need to maintain a facade of democracy.
* The village of Macondo in ''[[One Hundred Years of Solitude]]'' is set in such a country (assumed to be Colombia.) The story comes complete with banana-growing plantation owned by the notoriously corrupt United Fruit Company, which in the book persuades the Colombian army to {{spoiler|massacre all the workers. This actually happened in real life and is remembered as the massacre of the banana growers (masacre de los bananeros)}}.
* Although [[The Kingdoms of Evil]] resemble Mordor, they are actually a Banana Republic.
* Simon Templar, in Leslie Charteris' original novella "The Wonderful War", helped overthrow the corrupt government of the Republic of Pasala, which was actually a Oil Republic. In the TV series, the episode of the same title changed the setting to a [[Qurac]].
* In Latin America there's a whole style of books dealing with this. They're called "dictator novel" and, like the name implies, they tend to focus more on the man with the power rather than the country itself.
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[[Category:Hollywood Atlas]]
[[Category:Banana Republic]]
[[Category:Fictional Culture and Nation Tropes]]
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