An earnest urging or appeal to do something, often lacking the force of a binding instrument

Latin exhortari, 'to encourage strongly' (ex-, 'thoroughly' + hortari, 'to urge')

Appeal Urging Entreaty
Mandate Compulsion
"A strategy that simply exhorts private capital into refining without addressing the economics will produce announcements rather than plants, since exhortation alone cannot overcome an unbankable business case."

Useful when contrasting persuasion-based policy with binding regulation, e.g., 'moving from exhortation to enforceable emission standards was decisive in reducing vehicular pollution in Delhi-NCR.'

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