Logical Reasoning

PT129 · S1 · Q16 Among multiparty democracies

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Among multiparty democracies, those with the fewest parties will have the most-productive legislatures.

Conclusion

The multi-party democracies with the fewest number of parties have the most-productive legislatures.

Evidence

The fewer the parties, the more issues they have to take a stand on, so the more they have to prioritize those issues, leading to more compromise.

Evaluation

The conclusion is trying to make this voyage: “Fewest parties → most productive legislature”

The evidence takes us this far: , that never gets discussed in the evidence, we know our job is almost always to figure out what part of the evidence was intended to match up with that new guy in the conclusion.

Goal

Look for something connecting "more compromise" with "more productive legislature"

16.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

  1. The more political parties a

    Out of Scope: disagreements within parties

    The author is committed to thinking that more parties means each party has to take a stand on fewer issues, leading to less prioritizing and possibly less compromise. But nowhere does she discuss disagreements within parties.

    6% picked this

  2. The fewer the number of

    Out of Scope: important

    We know that the fewer parties there are, the more likely they are to compromise. But that’s different from saying “the more important it is that they compromise”. I can say “the more candy I eat, the more sugar is in my bloodstream”, and that wouldn’t commit me to thinking “the more candy I eat, the more important it is that there is sugar in my bloodstream”.

    9% picked this

  3. Correct

    The tendency to compromise makes

    Why this is right

    This is also the only answer that mentions the new guy “most-productive legislatures”, so it would be possible to scan the answers and move very quickly to this one. If we negate this, and compromise has nothing to do with productivity, then the author’s evidence never managed to say anything about “more/less productive legislatures”.

    Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    81% picked this

  4. The legislatures of nondemocracies are

    Fake Opposite Out of Scope: nondemocracies

    As soon as we see “nondemocracies”, we know this is out of scope. This is a Fake Opposite trap that’s common on Necessary Assumption. Since we’re hearing that some democracies are more productive, they write a trap answer that says non-democracies are less productive.

    1% picked this

  5. Legislators in a multiparty democracy

    Too Strong: “never” “all” “important issues”

    This is way too strong. The author hasn’t committed herself to the idea that legislators in multiparty democracies have never all agreed on something important. If we negate this, it gives something way too weak to hurt the argument: “at least one time, in a multiparty democracy, legislators all agreed on an important issue”.

    3% picked this

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