Preventive repression is political repression

Political repression

Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life of society....

 of political opponents before they actually carry out any activities that would threaten the current political system. The term was used to describe the political methods of the Paraguay

Paraguay

Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...

 caudillo

Caudillo

Caudillo is a Spanish word for "leader" and usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic...

Stroessner, whose methods of "nipping in the bud" the possibilities of any real or imagined unrest were reported at a 1972 Inter-American Defense Board meeting of US and Latin American military.

Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...

, in his work Counterrevolution and Revolt

Counterrevolution and Revolt

Counterrevolution and Revolt is a 1972 book of Herbert Marcuse.The work has four sections: "The Left Under the Counterrevolution," "Nature and Revolution," "Art and Revolution" and "Conclusion"....

operates with the term "preventive counterrevolution".

Since then, the term has been used to describe actions of other dictatorships.