ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter defines Tolerable Inequality as the way incumbent policy actors use the policy process to make social, political, and economic inequalities value-acceptable for high-value constituencies in order to maintain power dynamics and avoid political penalties. This is done through focused inattention, the harmonization or deviations and equality governance. This chapter has three goals: to identify the roles of Tolerable Inequality in the policy process, illustrate a penalty-centered model of the policy cycle (EPPC), and illustrate the way the queer, trans, and gender-diverse communities are impacted by a state of Tolerable Inequality. In all, this chapter argues that the policy process is set in motion when there is attention to the social reactions of high-value groups to unacceptable deviations which can impose expected political penalties. The focus of policy reactions is maintaining existing power dynamics as a way of satisfying high-value constituencies. In all, this chapter outlines the goals for this book to return public policy to the public, locate political penalties in the policy process, and identify different types of equality-based policy reactions.
