Andreas Braune

“Zwang” and Coercion: One Word, Two Concepts?

This paper will attempt to show that the concept of “coercion” as used in Anglo-American political philosophy may be a proper translation of its German counterpart “Zwang”, but in fact conveys a significantly different concept. While Zwang in German covers a wide range of meanings, coercion is confined to a much narrower range. This is a problem in itself, but it becomes even more problematic when a narrow concept of freedom is extrapolated from this deficient concept of coercion.