Domination and uchronia. Reading Tocqueville in light of La Boetie

Affinities between Tocqueville's thought and La :Boetie's concept of voluntary servitude have been suggested by many important Tocqueville specialists. In this paper I analyse this connection in depth. I argue that La-Boetie's concept allows to both enlighten and clarify some inner tensions of Tocqueville's thought. After defining the notion of voltmtary servitude, I focus on three tocquevillian issues: his penitentiary thought, his theory of power, and his critics of historiography. In all of them, subjugated people are described as both the victims and the backers of domination. I suggest that this short-circuit is linked to one of Tocqueville's core values: human freedom. If people's apathy is neither natural (as it is produced by authorities) nor unbreakable (as people might refuse to consent), freedom even in authoritarian contexts turns out to be unrestrainable, and the course of history open and unpredictable.