enforce obedience v. constrain obedience v. compel obedience

[hhtt21]

Would you please explain what "enforce obedience" means? Here is an example: "As any mafia don knows, the threat or use of violence can be an effective way to enforce obedience."

Are these phrase identical in the above sentence?

1."As any mafia don knows, the threat or use of violence can be an effective way to enforce obedience."
2."As any mafia don knows, the threat or use of violence can be an effective way to compel obedience."
3."As any mafia don knows, the threat or use of violence can be an effective way to constrain obedience.


"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enforcement

Thank you.

 

[jutfrank]

It means 'to make sure that people obey'.

No, your examples are not right.

 

[hhtt21]

It means 'to make sure that people obey'.

No, your examples are not right.

Then in spite of compell and constrain are given as synoyms of enforce in the meaning of in 3 in the link https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enforce they do not fit in this example.

Thank you.

 

[jutfrank]

They are not synonyms in my opinion.

 

[GoesStation]

Then in spite of compell and constrain are given as synoyms of enforce in the meaning of in 3 in the link https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enforce they do not fit in this example.

Synonyms are rarely interchangeable. There are cases where you could replace "enforce" with "compel" or "constrain", but you usually can't.

 

[jutfrank]

There are cases where you could replace "enforce" with "compel" or "constrain".

I can't think of any.