The invention provides a position control system configured to control the position of a movable object, including: a position measurement system configured to determine a position of a sensor or sensor target on the movable object, a comparator configured to provide an error signal by comparing a set-point position and a position feed-back signal based on the measured position, a controller to provide a control signal based on the error signal, a feed-forward device to provide a feed-forward signal on the basis of a first signal related to the desired position, and one or more actuators configured to act on the movable object based on the control signal and the feed-forward signal, wherein the position control system further includes a compliance compensation device providing a compliancecompensation signal, wherein the compliance compensation signal is subtracted from a measured position of the position measurement system to obtain the feed-back position signal. The invention further discloses a lithographic apparatus and a method to control the positionof a movable object.