This book, the result of a master's thesis, deals with the interpretation of a problem that runs through the entire tradition of political thought: that of domination. Demarcated from modernity onwards, the great paradox is to think about how this problem persists in philosophical reflections, in the midst of the idea that people have come to "govern themselves" with the emergence of the notion of subjectivity.

However, this notion appears alienated, since in ancient times women, slaves and foreigners were clear about their condition as subjugated people. In the modern capitalist world, supported by the dominant ideology, the problem remains, with other complexities.

Marx understood history to be the history of the class struggle; Gramsci saw history as the history of hegemonic states. The thesis defended in this book is that Gramsci deals with the problem of domination as a problem of hegemony, a concept originating with Lenin that Gramsci adopts to elucidate the extent of domination in the capitalist world, and is therefore the foundation of the state.

The struggle of the subaltern classes for hegemony in order to break with existing domination remains open, to the chagrin of those who believe in an "end of history". .