Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to act in an involuntary manner by use
of intimidation or threats or some other form of pressure or force. It involves a set of
various types of forceful actions that violate the free will of an individual to induce a
desired response, usually having a strict choice or option against a person in such
a way a victim cannot escape, for example: a bully demanding lunch money to a student
or the student gets beaten. These actions can include, but are not limited to, extortion,
blackmail, torture, and threats to induce favors. In law, coercion is codified as a
duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in a way contrary
to their own interests. Coercion may involve the actual infliction of physical pain/injury
or psychological harm in order to enhance the credibility of a threat. The threat of
further harm may lead to the cooperation or obedience of the person being coerced.
Overview The purpose of coercion is to substitute one's
aims to those of the victim. For this reason, many social philosophers have considered coercion
as the polar opposite to freedom. Various forms of coercion are distinguished:
first on the basis of the kind of injury threatened, second according to its aims and scope, and
finally according to its effects, from which its legal, social, and ethical implications
mostly depend. Physical
Physical coercion is the most commonly considered form of coercion, where the content of the
conditional threat is the use of force against a victim, their dear ones or property. An
often used example is "putting a gun to someone's head" or putting a "knife under the throat"
to compel action or the victim gets killed or injured. These are so common that they
are also used as metaphors for other forms of coercion.
Armed forces in many countries use firing squads to maintain discipline and intimidate
the masses, or opposition, into submission or silent compliance. However, there also
are nonphysical forms of coercion, where the threatened injury does not immediately imply
the use of force. Byman and Waxman define coercion as "the use of threatened force,
including the limited use of actual force to back up the threat, to induce an adversary
to behave differently than it otherwise would." Coercion does not in many cases amount to
destruction of property or life since compliance is the goal.
Psychological In psychological coercion, the threatened
injury regards the victim’s relationships with other people. The most obvious example
is blackmail, where the threat consists of the dissemination of damaging information.
However, many other types are possible e.g. so-called "emotional blackmail", which typically
involves threats of rejection from or disapproval by a peer-group, or creating feelings of guilt/obligation
via a display of anger or hurt by someone whom the victim loves or respects. Another
example is coercive persuasion. Psychological coercion – along with the
other varieties - was extensively and systematically used by the government of the People’s Republic
of China during the “Thought Reform” campaign of 1951-1952. The process – carried out
partly at “revolutionary universities” and partly within prisons – was investigated
and reported upon by Robert Jay Lifton, then Research Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University:
see Lifton. The techniques used by the Chinese authorities included a technique derived from
standard group psychotherapy, which was aimed at forcing the victims to produce detailed
and sincere ideological “confessions”. For instance, a professor of formal logic
called Chin Yueh-lin – who was then regarded as China’s leading authority on his subject
– was induced to write: “The new philosophy [of Marxism-Leninism], being scientific, is
the supreme truth”. [Lifton p. 545]. Notes
References Anderson, Scott A., "Towards a Better Theory
of Coercion, and a Use for It", The University of Chicago [1]
Lifton, Robert J. Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, Penguin Books.
External links Coercion entry by Scott Anderson in the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Carter, Barry E. Economic Coercion, Max Planck
Encyclopedia of Public International Law