Arbitrary power persists at lower intensities inside ordinary rule-governed institutions like marriage and employment

Evidence

But it is not likely to be realized in many contexts. Such power is often approximated, however, at lower levels of intensity, even in rule-governed societies. The husband who can beat his wife for disobeying his instructions and be subject, at most, to the mild censure of his neighbours; the employer who can fire his employees as whim inclines him and hardly suffer embarrassment for doing so; the teacher who can chastise her pupils on the slightest excuse or pretence at excuse; the prison warder who can make life hell for inmates, and not worry much about covering her tracks: all such figures enjoy high degrees of arbitrary power over those subject to them. They may not be as common in some societies today as they once were. But they are not as unfamiliar as the slave-holder or potentate, and even where they do not survive, they have often left somewhat less powerful, but still recognizable, progeny in their place. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 301

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to republican theory of freedom as non-domination and contemporary accounts of workplace and household domination — useful concrete examples of domination persisting where formal legal equality exists. — connects to: Domination persists amid law as lower-intensity arbitrary household and workplace power — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 301; Institutional power persists even in egalitarian settings that believe they disavowed it; Institutions can deliberately cultivate servility as a form of unfreedom (+1 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The point that formal rule-governed societies still shelter high-intensity arbitrary power — and that such power leaves ‘recognizable progeny’ even when softened — is a dense framework for analyzing domination across institutions.

Broader Connections

• Domination persists amid law as lower-intensity arbitrary household and workplace power #corroborates (0.98) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 301
• Institutional power persists even in egalitarian settings that believe they disavowed it #expands (0.85)
• Institutions can deliberately cultivate servility as a form of unfreedom #expands (0.75)
• Laws meant to enhance freedom can themselves create new arbitrary power. #qualifies (0.75) — Frank Lovett, Republicanism, 56