Coercion

Coercion is the use of violence or other kinds or force, or the threat of such force, to dictate the actions of others. Libertarians and some others have a special pejorative meaning of coercion, implying that the use or threat of force is one of the ones they disapprove of. Criminals and some others have a special esteem meaning of coercion, implying that the use or threat of force is one of the ones they arrogate of.

Rights and systems of law are generally backed by the threat of force.

Cultural coercion substitutes community opprobrium, the "threat of scandal," for physical violence. Whatever the avowed intent, pressures for cultural conformity are enforced by public recitation of a creed or a pledge of allegiance, acts which have the effect of rooting out and exposing any disaffected or heterodox among those assembled.

Coercion is often used to political ends, both by states and by other entities. Coercion (primarily in the specialized sense) is opposed by many liberal thinkers, in addition to the anarchists, libertarians and pacifists who are associated with protests against corecive activities. Nevertheless, coercion remains one of the most basic forms of motivation, and continues to be used for that purpose.

Some consider that corporations may exert coercive force through control over scarce resources, such as food, water, housing, and others which individuals would consider essential to maintaining their lives, as in the concept of the hydraulic economy, in which individual survival depends upon the distribution of water. Compare the entry Company town.

See also: hegemony, intimidation, libertarian socialism