PrepTest 110, Section 1, Question 1
Most authoritarian rulers who undertake democratic reforms do(449 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AAuthoritarian rulers tend(30 more words not shown)
- BAuthoritarian regimes tend(27 more words not shown)
- CAuthoritarian policies tend(32 more words not shown)
- DAuthoritarian principles tend(31 more words not shown)
- EAuthoritarian rulers who(25 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We've already predicted the main point: these rulers introduce reforms because changes in society make keeping absolute power unrealistic. They concede some power to preserve what they can. The three kinds of social change explain why that calculation becomes necessary.
Working the answers
- A
This makes threatened economic slowdown and disorder the required trigger. We aren't told rulers wait for that threat before reforming. The ending even explains how economic success and stability can foster the pressures for change.
- B
Former wealthy supporters may withdraw their support. That doesn't mean rulers allow opposition groups to recruit them, as this answer claims. It also narrows the explanation to just the economic group.
- C
We aren't told the economic success will be short lived. Success itself can give citizens time to reconsider their circumstances. This adds a later failure and leaves out the broader explanation of reforms.
- D
The writer doesn't say stability requires democratic institutions. Authoritarian regimes can create stability; the irony is that doing so can generate pressure to share power.
- ECorrect
This joins the opening and ending. Rulers respond to social changes that make absolute power impossible to retain indefinitely, and authoritarian rule itself generally produces all three kinds of change over time (paragraph 5). The reforms are a response to those pressures, not a conversion to democratic ideals.
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