Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/175

 A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF SOVEREIGNTY l6l

The foregoing grouping of sanctions is in the order of coer- civeness. The corporal sanctions depend on direct bodily control over the subject, as in slavery and punishment. The privative sanctions are indirect coercion through control over the external necessities, comforts, or luxuries of life, or over the opportuni- ties for procuring these. The remuneratory sanction may be either coercive or persuasive, depending on its relation to the priva- tive sanction. Generally, he who has power to grant rewards has also power to take them away. Here the two sanctions are not differentiated. The predominant quality is, therefore, that of coercion, since the sanction which bears upon neces- sities overshadows that which appeals to ambition, and where the two are tied inextricably together the former gives character to the whole. The remuneratory sanction in such case is coercive by virtue of the lack of a third choice. The subject person is shut up to the two alternatives of accepting reward for service or going without altogether. But when for any reason the agent is prevented from falling back on the privative sanction, his appeal must take on the character of persuasion, whether it be of the material or social kind. This is one of the parts played by the state, as will appear later, in differentiating the privative from the remuneratory sanctions, as in guaranteeing minimum conditions, such as minimum wages and security of employment. In this way the coercive element of the remuneratory sanction is taken away, and it becomes more distinctly persuasive.

The reprobatory and approbatory sanctions are wholly psy- chic in character. They offer nothing to the subject except the regard or disregard of the agent. The power to arouse motives depends on no external means of enforcing obedience, either by bodily pressure or by deprivation of material necessities. For this reason they are distinctly persuasive in character. The agent, in relying upon them, can appeal only to the active beliefs and desires of the subject. This compels him to cultivate in himself such qualities as entreaty, eloquence, and reasoning. Coercion, on the other hand, is the power to drive to an act of service by arousing through tacit or avowed threats the fear of bodily pains or material privations. The agent with such power