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Multinational corporations, totalitarian regimes and economic nationalism: United Fruit Company in Central America, 1899-1975

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  • Marcelo Bucheli

Abstract

The US multinational United Fruit Company has been considered the quintessential representative of American imperialism in Central America. Not only did the company enjoy enormous privileges in that region, but also counted on authoritarian governments in dealing with labour unrest. The literature assumes that United Fruit and the dictators were natural allies due to their opposition to organised unionism. This paper shows that this alliance could only survive as long as the multinational provided the dictators with economic stability for the country. However, when the multinational proved to be incapable of doing that, the dictators allied with the working class to confront the multinational and extract higher rents from it.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcelo Bucheli, 2008. "Multinational corporations, totalitarian regimes and economic nationalism: United Fruit Company in Central America, 1899-1975," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(4), pages 433-454.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:50:y:2008:i:4:p:433-454
    DOI: 10.1080/00076790802106315
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Marcelo Bucheli & Min-Young Kim, 2012. "Political Institutional Change, Obsolescing Legitimacy, and Multinational Corporations," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 52(6), pages 847-877, December.
    2. Shon R. Hiatt & W. Chad Carlos & Wesley D. Sine, 2018. "Manu Militari : The Institutional Contingencies of Stakeholder Relationships on Entrepreneurial Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 633-652, August.
    3. Bucheli, Marcelo & DeBerge, Thomas, 2024. "Multinational enterprises’ nonmarket strategies: Insights from History," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2).
    4. Pleasant, Traben & Spalding, Ana, 2021. "Development and dependency in the periphery: From bananas to tourism in Bocas del Toro, Panama," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    5. Luis Fernando Medina & Marcelo Bucheli & Minyoung Kim, 2019. "Good friends in high places: Politico-economic determinants of the expropriation and taxation of multinational firms," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(2), pages 119-141, June.

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