ABSTRACT
Informal empire exists when one state controls indirectly substantial residual rights in the other; this typically occurs through a nominally sovereign but functionally dependent and therefore controllable agent in the subordinate state. Informal empire differs from formal empire, according to Michael Doyle, principally in the mechanism of control, "which informal imperialism achieves through the collaboration of a legally independent (but actually subordinate) government in the periphery." This creates the reality of empire without the form.25 In this sense, informal empire is rule by proxy or, more meaningfully, a form of delegated authority. To the extent that the local government is dependent upon the dominant state, it must obey the latter's commands and anticipate its wishes. This dependence effectively, if not legally, transfers broad residual rights of control to the dominant state. The greater the dependence of the local government upon the dominant state and the less costly it is for the latter to replace the former, the greater the transfer of rights.
