ABSTRACT
Declarations that force is the main or ultimate form of power have a long history in social thought. Coercion is a highly effective form of power but a costly one. Max Weber's famous definition of the state as a 'human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory' implies that the state exercises more than a single form of power. Yet Weber's definition refers to both force and legitimacy as attributes of the state's authority. Ralf Dahrendorf has been chiefly responsible for the by now exceedingly influential interpretation of sociological theory that sees it as divided between proponents of a 'consensus' and of a 'conflict' model of society, or, an 'integration' and a 'coercion theory of society'. Dahrendorfs dualism led him to neglect the interaction and mutual influence between legitimacy and coercion in stable power relations.
