Pakottajat ja auktoriteetti eli vallan filosofia

Authors

• Timo Airaksinen

Abstract

Coercion and authority are two radically different forms of social power. Coercion can be divided into two types: strict coercion and deterrence. Both employ threats but in strict coercion those threats bring about a net profit to the coercer; a deterrent threat is designed to prevent a loss to the coercer. A definition of authority is offered next and it is argued that »authority» is a consensus-notion. The main difference between coercion and authority is that a coercer can (try to) break the resistance of his subordinate agents but an authority cannot do the same. My main conceptual point is that if strong and persistent resistance occurs, an alleged authority is not an actual authority. Finally, I discuss the moral and power-related aspects of authority and their relations to the idea of a reasonably just, legitimate state. Every state needs not only authority-based power but also such coercive agents as the police and the army.