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The absolutist characteristics that a Hobbesian state embodies, is fundamentally due to the pessimistic nature that Hobbes' takes of man in a state where he is not subjected to any external authority. Unlike Locke, Hobbes sees man as centres of appetites rather than of rights and duties. The Hobbesian man relentlessly pursues his own desires, whereas the Lockean man pauses to think what effects his actions will have on others. The Hobbesian society therefore requires …

…the importance of individual choice because it has succeeded in channeling it within manageable limits. But those limits are constantly threatened, and the source of the threats, some more apparent recently than for sometime, are those which Hobbes identified, unrestrained egoism and religious certainty. When they do arise, civil peace is threatened, and the state if it is to survive is forced to cast aside its benign liberal mask and assert its ultimately absolutist authority.