pseudostate

• pseudo-state

pseudo- +‎ state

pseudostate (plural pseudostates)

1. (politics) A geopolitical entity which has some of the trappings of an independently-governed country or territory, but which lacks real independence and is not recognized as a self-governing political entity by the international community of nations.
   • 1994 July 29, Bill Keller, “Back to the Land: South African Blacks Walk a Legal and Economic Maze”, in New York Times, retrieved 19 August 2014:

     In 1975 the state decreed that the Mfengu were really Xhosa, and that their traditional "homeland" was 300 miles away, in a Xhosa pseudostate called Ciskei.

   • 2013 September 23, Matt Steinglass, “Democracy in America: Rebels and tyrants”, in Economist, retrieved 19 August 2014:

     For Iran, Syria is a counterweight to any Sunni resurgence in Iraq, as well as the conduit to Hizbullah, its client Shiite pseudo-state in Lebanon.

2. (computing theory) An entity that resembles, but is not in fact, a state in a state machine or similar.
   • 2007, Lubos Brim, Boudewijn Haverkort, Martin Leucker, Formal Methods: Applications and Technology: 11th International Workshop, page 256:

     Every exit pseudostate that does not have an incoming transition becomes a priority relevant exit pseudostate, the other exit pseudostates become non-priority relevant exit pseudostates.