Moral suasion is an appeal to morality, in order to influence or change behavior. A famous example is the attempt by William Lloyd Garrison and his American Anti-Slavery Society to end slavery in the United States by arguing that the practice was morally wrong.[1] In economics, moral suasion is more specifically defined as "the attempt to coerce private economic activity via governmental exhortation in directions not already defined or dictated by existing statute law."[2] The "moral" aspect comes from the pressure for "moral responsibility" to operate in a way that is consistent with furthering the good of the economy.[3] Moral suasion in this narrower sense is also sometimes known as jawboning.[4] In rhetoric, moral suasion is closely aligned with Aristotle's concept of pathos, which is one of the three modes of persuasion and describes an appeal to the moral principles of the audience.[5]
There are two types of moral suasion:
- "Pure" moral suasion is an appeal for altruistic behaviour[2] and is rarely used in economic policy.
- "Impure" moral suasion, which is the usual meaning of "moral suasion" in economics, is backed by explicit or implicit threats by authorities to provide incentives to comply with the authorities' wishes.[2]
- ^ Tunde Adeleke, "Afro-Americans and moral suasion: the debate in the 1830s," The Journal of Negro History, 1998: 127–142.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
romanswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Adam Hayes, What does moral suasion mean, Investopedia. Accessed June 1, 2010.
- ^ Paul R. Verkuil, "Jawboning administrative agencies: Ex Parte Contracts by the White House," Columbia Law Review, 1980: 943–989.
- ^ "Ethos, Pathos, Logos: The Three Modes of Persuasion". CRM.org. 2020-06-02. Retrieved 2023-02-12.