Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
1576
Summary
Written around 1549 by the young French magistrate Étienne de La Boétie and first published posthumously in 1576, this founding text of libertarian political philosophy asks a single radical question: why do millions obey one tyrant? La Boétie's answer — that tyranny rests entirely on the voluntary consent of the governed — remains one of the most subversive ideas in Western political thought. The prescription follows directly: withdraw consent, and tyranny collapses of its own weight.