PrepTest 50, Section 2, Question 16
Among multiparty democracies, those with the fewest parties will have the most-productive legislatures. The fewer the number of parties in a democracy, the more issues each must take a stand on. A political party that must take stands on a wide variety of issues has to prioritize those issues; this promotes a tendency to compromise.
Among multiparty democracies, those with the fewest parties will have the most-productive legislatures. The fewer the number of parties in a democracy, the more issues each must take a stand on. A political party that must take stands on a wide variety of issues has to prioritize those issues; this promotes a tendency to compromise.
Among multiparty democracies, those with the fewest parties will have the most-productive legislatures. The fewer the number of parties in a democracy, the more issues each must take a stand on. A political party that must take stands on a wide variety of issues has to prioritize those issues; this promotes a tendency to compromise.
Among multiparty democracies, those with the fewest parties will have the most-productive legislatures. The fewer the number of parties in a democracy, the more issues each must take a stand on. A political party that must take stands on a wide variety of issues has to prioritize those issues; this promotes a tendency to compromise.
Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?
The more political parties a nation has, the more likely it is that there will be disagreements within parties.
The fewer the number of a nation's political parties, the more important it is that those parties can compromise with each other.
The tendency to compromise makes the legislative process more productive.
The legislatures of nondemocracies are less productive than are those of democracies.
Legislators in a multiparty democracy never all agree on important issues.
Explanations
Make sure you identify the conclusion before moving into the question and answer choices. It's not super obvious on this one.
This author argues that democracies with the fewest parties have the most productive legislatures.
They justify this by saying the fewer the parties, the more issues the parties must address. And the more issues parties must address, the more they need to prioritize, promoting a tendency compromise.
So the author believes that this tendency to compromise must lead to productive legislatures.
Turns out to be a Necessary Assumption, so we're going in armed to the teeth. Let's see.
Nah, the author doesn't have to believe this. The author doesn't say anything about disagreement. This might be implied to some extent, but it's certainly not required to make this author's conclusion.
Nope. I could see a lot of students falling for this, though. It's familiar language from the passage thrown in a blender. According to our author, educing the number of parties doesn't mean it's more important to compromise, just that the parties will be forced to compromise more often given the large number of issues they must address.
Bingo. And a perfect match to our prediction. This is what the author has to believe. You could negate this with ". . . tendency to compromise does not make. . ." or by saying, ". . . makes the legislative process less productive." Either way, you have a rock-solid negation proving this is something the author must believe to make their conclusion.
No chance. Get outta town, D. This makes absolutely no sense and we have no support for it.
Nah. Be careful, just because this is almost certainly true doesn't mean it's something the author's argument requires.
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