In common parlance, leverage is a synonym for power.

Power, however, is a broad and

amorphous concept. Robert Dahl, a leading theorist on political power, defines power in
these terms: "A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something B
would not otherwise do." Power in negotiation may similarly be understood as the ability
to affect favorably someone else's decisions. Negotiating power can take many different
forms, including status, knowledge and information, organizational control, personal
charisma, and superior alternatives.' Leverage is best understood as a subset of power
and, like other sources of power, may be used legitimately or illegitimately. Here, I use
the term leverage to refer to a specific type of power: power rooted in consequences.
That is, a party has leverage when it has the ability to influence another party through
the threat of or the imposition of consequences on that party. Leverage is distinct from
other sources of power, which derive their force from either psychological processes or
social norms such as moral principle, charisma, or rank. Leverage encompasses all
forms of power based on a party's ability to confer material benefits or impose material
costs on a counterparty.
Moving on, the terminology of Peter Westen, "coercion" is a vice word - a word that
conveys a derogatory normative judgment. It is contrasted with "freedom", a virtue word
conveying a positive normative judgment. Our state constitutions exist in large measure
to limit governmental coercion and promote individual freedom of action. A variety of
criminal and civil laws proscribe coercion or excuse actions coerced by others in the
private sphere. Chief among them are laws prohibiting extortion, the defense of duress
to criminal or civil liability, and contract doctrines offering relief from agreements on
grounds of duress and unconscionability. If coercion is a social evil, it is a subtle one.
Coercion involves a paradox: coercion is an evil because it robs a person of her
freedom of action, yet coercion exists only when the coerced person acts under her own
volition. For example, I coerce a person if I threaten to break her arm unless she gives
me her money; I do not coerce her if I forcibly remove her wallet from her possession.
The difference between the two is that in the first case, the success of my venture
depends on her taking a volitional action to give me her money. Even if volitional,
however, her action arguably is not voluntary. In the lexicon of The Godfather, I made
her an offer she could not refuse.