# Contested concept: coercion

_**What you are reading**: one contested-concept page in Deliberus's deliberation graph. Deliberus maps human reasoning — including claims that are contested, mistaken, or extreme — so that disagreement can be examined precisely. A claim's presence here is not an endorsement: the graph records that someone argued it, how it connects to other reasoning, and how far scrutiny has gotten. The metadata on this page describes the state of that scrutiny, not the truth of the claim._

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- **Contestedness**: semantic
- **Diagnosis**: The relabeling hides a disagreement over whether state-imposed incentives and administrative rules are legitimate rather than merely controlling. It also hides whether mutual consent can be genuine when the majority binds the minority.
- **Canonical**: `/concept/coercion` (data: `/concept/coercion.json`)

## Senses in use
- **Mutually agreed, majority-endorsed social arrangements (taxes, fines, meters, laws), compatible with grumbling and not necessarily arbitrary** — used in 6 claim(s)
- **Pejorative: arbitrary decisions by distant, irresponsible bureaucrats; a 'dirty word'** — used in 3 claim(s)
- **Biased option-shaping that others would label 'persuasion'** — used in 1 claim(s)

## Claims using this term
- [The only kind of coercion I recommend is mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.](/claim/claim_00162c8f9c63.md) _(sense: Mutually agreed, majority-endorsed social arrangements (taxes, fines, meters, laws), compatible with grumbling and not necessarily arbitrary)_
- [To many, the word coercion implies arbitrary decisions of distant and irresponsible bureaucrats; but this is not a necessary part of its me…](/claim/claim_03d332e3df63.md) _(sense: Pejorative: arbitrary decisions by distant, irresponsible bureaucrats; a 'dirty word')_
- [Taxing is a good coercive device.](/claim/claim_58693208f70b.md) _(sense: Mutually agreed, majority-endorsed social arrangements (taxes, fines, meters, laws), compatible with grumbling and not necessarily arbitrary)_
- [The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort.](/claim/claim_5a7ec3dd2b16.md) _(sense: Mutually agreed, majority-endorsed social arrangements (taxes, fines, meters, laws), compatible with grumbling and not necessarily arbitrary)_
- [The dirtiness of the word coercion can be cleansed away by exposure to the light, by saying it over and over without apology or embarrassme…](/claim/claim_7002d12f40a8.md) _(sense: Pejorative: arbitrary decisions by distant, irresponsible bureaucrats; a 'dirty word')_
- [To say that we mutually agree to coercion is not to say that we are required to enjoy it, or even to pretend we enjoy it.](/claim/claim_8d85ab9d075d.md) _(sense: Mutually agreed, majority-endorsed social arrangements (taxes, fines, meters, laws), compatible with grumbling and not necessarily arbitrary)_
- [Coercion is a dirty word to most liberals now.](/claim/claim_998bcea0232c.md) _(sense: Pejorative: arbitrary decisions by distant, irresponsible bureaucrats; a 'dirty word')_
- [[Offering carefully biased options rather than prohibition] a Madison Avenue man might call persuasion; I prefer the greater candor of the …](/claim/claim_abd955965785.md) _(sense: Biased option-shaping that others would label 'persuasion')_
- [We need not actually forbid a citizen to park as long as he wants to; we need merely make it increasingly expensive for him to do so.](/claim/claim_ef765209ac1c.md) _(sense: Mutually agreed, majority-endorsed social arrangements (taxes, fines, meters, laws), compatible with grumbling and not necessarily arbitrary)_
- [To say that we mutually agree to coercion is not to say that we are required to enjoy coercion, or even to pretend we enjoy it.](/claim/claim_ff682225ca01.md) _(sense: Mutually agreed, majority-endorsed social arrangements (taxes, fines, meters, laws), compatible with grumbling and not necessarily arbitrary)_