CRITERIA FOR DECIDING WHETHER A POWER IS PRACTICING FORMAL OR INFORMAL IMPERIALISM

1.  The level of military involvement

2.  The nature and level of political control
Spectrum: sovereignty -- direct rule

3.  The nature of political response to the imperial power
Spectrum:  cooperation -- collaboration -- armed resistance

4.  The nature of economic relations between the imperial power and the "other" society
Spectrum: cooperation (symbiosis; mutual interdependence) -- complete economic domination

5.  The sense of identity / ideologies motivating the societies' approach to one another
linguistic relations
identity of groups within the metropolitan population (e.g. sense of civilising mission?)
identity of groups within the "other" society (e.g. sense of being oppressed)


other categories?  geography. . .