When most people think of puppets, images of Punch and Judy come to mind. However, in the political world, there is, unfortunately, a darker and more sinister definition applied to this word. Whether it be a small scale local government with ties to and exercising the will of an important local business entity or, on the other side of the spectrum, a national government that is in some way (directly or indirectly) controlled by a foreign government, puppet governments represent an interesting political anomaly.
As with many other words, the concept behind is older than the word itself. Though the word puppet first entered English in the 1530s and referred to the traditional dolls on strings, it was first metaphorically used in reference to a regime in the early 1600s. With the metaphor implying that, as a theater puppet is operated by a puppeteer behind the scenes, so is a political puppet operated by a foreign entity. In reality though, puppet government existed in the ancient world and the Middle Ages, though often referred to as client kingdoms or vassal states.
Throughout history, there have been many examples of countries that have exhibited varying characteristics of puppet governments. Theoretically, in its broadest definition of simply having a strong foreign influence, possibly the best modern example was the Cold War and the Iron Curtain, where NATO and the Soviet Union vied for influence and attempted to gain advantage in many regions of the world. Using a more refined definition, many of the examples of puppet government come from wartime, such as those created by the Axis Powers during the Second World War to domestically enforce their will in a newly conquered territory or those created by Napoleonic France to act as a buffer against the enemies.
The first actual written reference of puppet in the political sense comes from John Speed’s Historie of Great Britaine in 1611, where he cynically speaks of a greeting: “To salute this puppet King, and to welcome these papals.” In his 1774 Poetical Works, Robert Lloyd rightly ponders whether or not one can “bow down with reverent awe Before this puppet king of straw?” Finally, in a statement on British involvement in Eastern Europe as well as a statement on the state of Scotland, Lord Macaulay in his 1855 The History of England writes that, “Scotland would have been a smaller Poland, with a puppet sovereign, a turbulent diet, and an enslaved people.”
