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  5. All empires have depended on local legitimacy and local...

All empires have depended on local legitimacy and local collaboration; they are not based primarily on coercion. An imperial rule that relies wholly on coercion can't endure. It's too expensive.

Niall Ferguson
Collaboration, Coercion, Empires
"Imperial Denial". Interview with Nonna Gorilovskaya, www.motherjones.com. May 21, 2004.
All empires have depended on local legitimacy and local collaboration; they are not based primarily on coercion. An imperial rule that relies wholly on coercion can't endure. It's too expensive.