Instituting the Hobbesian commonwealth

In Hobbes' political theory, a commonwealth established by force is a commo nwealth by acquisition, while a commonwealth established by the mutual agre ement of individuals in a hobbesian State of Nature is a commonwealth by in stitution. In this essay, I reconstruct Hobbes' account of commonwealth by institution and its role in justifying sovereignty, filling in gaps in the original account when necessary but remaining faithful to Hobbes' own premi ses. I argue that according to this hobbesian reconstruction, commonwealth by institution can produce essentially the same result as result of commonw ealth by acquisition. This is the conclusion Hobbes wants, bu the Hobbesian reconstruction renders commonwealth by institution a weak tool for justifi cation. however, I propose a modified reconstruction of commonwealth by ins titution that drops Hobbes' dubious premise that absolute monarchy is the b est form of government. I suggest that with this modification, one can use commonwealth by institution as a tool for justifying a democratic commonwea lth.