Mary I am not aware of the commonness ot the usage of "coercion" by economic theorists to which you refer. I suspect that the usage you justifiably criticize appears more commonly in documents authored by conservative think tanks than in economic journals. The former are usually quite distinct from economic theory -- "economic polemics" might be the better term. Phil Ruder On Sun, 14 May 1995 [log in to unmask] wrote: > When did "coercion" become commonly used by economists to mean > virtually everything the government does? I note several possible > substitute words that could be chosen: constrain, compel, oblige, > force -- why coerce? Coerce is a very narrow, very STRONG term. > -- Mary Schweitzer, Dept. of History, Villanova > +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Phil Ruder | | Dept. of Bus. and Economics [log in to unmask] | | Pacific University (vox) 503-357-6151 | | Forest Grove, OR (fax) 503-359-2242 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+