This essay is written by Montaigne’s great friend and mentor, Étienne de la Boétie, whose beliefs profoundly affect Montaigne; they amount to source material for much of Montaigne’s political philosophy.

The purpose of the essay is to describe how freedom can be snatched from a people, and how tyranny grows and sustains itself. Beyond Montaigne, it also influenced revolutionaries in subsequent centuries and affected writers and leaders such as Thoreau, Tolstoy, and Gandhi.

Of the three roads to tyranny listed by La Boétie—conquest, inheritance, and election—the latter is the most problematic: how can a leader chosen directly by the people turn on them and take their freedom? La Boétie suggests it must be done thoroughly and cruelly, stamping out all resistance and obliterating the people’s memory of their former freedom. Is this even possible? Yes: A good example of a modern tyrant who came to power through a democratic process is Adolf Hitler, who is elected Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and quickly proceeds to replace constitutional liberties with a tyrannical regime. Other examples include Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Hugo Chavez and his successors in Venezuela.

La Boétie suggests that it is the high-born, the learned men of good character, who will lead any move to regain freedom from a tyrant.