Realist power theory usually justifies coercion by its practical services.

Evidence

This putatively realist perspective can be expressed in notably unapologetic terms — as it is, for example, by Thrasymachus in Plato’s Republic, to some degree by Machiavelli in The Prince, and subsequently by Nietzsche. Thus presented, it is a perspective on power from the viewpoint of the powerholder (or of claques of intellectuals who more or less grovellingly identify themselves with the powerholder). But it is commoner for it to appear in a decidedly more apologetic vein, explicating not the pleasure of exerting coercive power but the practical services which this can and does furnish to those over whom it is exercised. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1130