Wiktionary
n. A government which is formally independent, but de facto wholly controlled by a foreign power.
WordNet
n. a government that is appointed by and whose affairs are directed by an outside authority that may impose hardships on those governed [syn: puppet state, pupet regime]
Usage examples of "puppet government".
Hitler's puppet government are not working men, but a gang of bankers, gaga generals and corrupt right-wing politicians.
Heir - apparent Daclif Gallamby becomes the new Diktat, though he is little more than just a figurehead for a puppet government.
Others were taken by representatives from the Foreign Ministry and by allied diplomats: men from Germany and Italy, from Romania and Hungary and Bulgaria, from Croatia and Vichy France, from Manchukuo and Siam, from the Japanese puppet government of China in Nanking, and from the even less powerful authorities Japan had set up with the aid of nationalists in Burma, Malaya, and the Philippines.
A puppet government, eternally in debt to certain elements in Washington.
If they are not careful, they will become just like the corrupt, puppet government of the South that we fought against for so long.