Coercion

Description

Wertheimer attempts to move beyond previous theories of coercion by conducting a fairly extensive survey of the way in which cases involving coercion have been treated by American courts. This impressive project occupies the first half of the book, where he makes a convincing case that there is a fairly unified 'theory of coercion' at work in adjud

"Since that essay [Robert Nozick's 'Coercion'], there has been a steadily growing literature on coercion, a literature that on the leading issue has divided itself into two types of theories. In one camp are those who view coercion as an empirical or descriptive concept ...; in the other camp we find proponents of the position that coercion is a normative or moralized concept... In Coercion, Alan Wertheimer sets forth what must now be considered the most detailed and defensible version of the normative position."--Stuart D. Warner, Ethics