164 Political Theory: The Relationship of Man and the Statewhat he may do to them if they do not submit. The only major
difference between a Commonwealth by Acquisition and a
Commonwealth by Institution is that in the latter the people fear
one another; in the former they fear the ruler.
However, the Commonwealth by Institution is a bit more
complex. Here men come together and by an act of the intellect
recognize the advantages of peace over the life in the natural
state, and they institute a government. The power is invested in
a “man or an assembly of men,” preferably in a man. The
sovereign must have unlimited power in order to maintain the
peace and protect the lives of the subjects. This, then, allows for
one exception to an all-powerful ruler, for a citizen can defend
his own life even if it means opposing the sovereign. The
contract, once established, cannot be violated; the people come
together out of fear of anarchy. If the ruler maintains a peaceful
civil society, the quality of that society is not the issue. The fact
that the state is relatively peaceful fulfills the only responsibility
of the sovereign.
Hobbes’ philosophy begins with a concept of man as a
material being, determined by the interaction of matter in mo
tion, governed by appetites and aversions. The state of nature is
a state of war, and out of fear men make a contract to institute a
sovereign to provide the peace they cannot provide for them
selves. That sovereign must be absolute in all matters but one (he
may not place a subject’s life in jeopardy). He is above the law,
and his role is basically utilitarian. There should be one religion
in the state, controlled by the sovereign, and that religion should
be the basis for unity. The concept of the social contract as the
basis for the state, and the concept of absolute monarchy are
probably his two most important contributions to political theory.