Repressive Tolerance is a 1965 essay by Herbert Marcuse.[1] In the essay, Marcuse, a Marxist and social theorist, argues that "pure tolerance" favors the political right and "the tyranny of the majority".
Critics of the essay argues that his argument is anti-democratic and that he opposes freedom of expression.
However, he affirms at the last of the essay that "the alternative to the established semi-democratic proseccus is not a dictatorship or elite, no matter how intellectual and intelligent, but the struggle for a real democracy." At this point, his idea is akin to the rule of law.
Today, the concept of repressive tolerance is largely referred to as co-optation, and is unrelated to Marcuse's use.
It refers to the practice of gradual or incremental social reforms which then gradually become a constraint for new social movements. In the context of contemporary social movements, one example might be only partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, as occurred in Great Britain under the Sexual Offences Act 1967 but which imposed a discriminatory age of consent, expulsion from the armed services, prohibitions on multiple sexual partners and arrests for public sex, most of which were later abolished under the premiership of Tony Blair. Another might be the partial decriminalisation of cannabis through spot fines instead of imprisonment for 'minor' drug offences.