PrepTest 129, Section 1, Question 16
Among multiparty democracies, those with the fewest parties(47 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- AThe more political(16 more words not shown)
- BThe fewer the(19 more words not shown)
- CThe tendency to(7 more words not shown)
- DThe legislatures of(9 more words not shown)
- ELegislators in a(8 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why would fewer parties mean a more productive legislature? That is the claim the rest of the argument needs to support.
The proposed explanation starts with how many issues each party must address. In a system with many parties, perhaps a party could concentrate on the environment. With only a few parties, each might need positions on the environment, taxes, education, and much more. Accept the passage's account: covering more issues requires setting priorities, which promotes compromise.
But what does being more willing to compromise establish about getting legislative work done? It might sound promising, yet that connection hasn't been stated. The argument ends its explanation at a tendency to compromise while its opening conclusion concerns productivity.
What we’re looking for
The necessary assumption should connect those ideas. If a tendency to compromise didn't make the legislative process more productive, the explanation about fewer parties wouldn't support the promised advantage. That is the missing step I want to find.
Working the answers
- A
Disagreements within a party are different from the number of issues a party must address or its willingness to compromise. The argument can use its stated explanation without assuming that a nation with more parties has more internal party disagreements. A introduces a separate pattern.
- B
The importance of compromise isn't the same as its effect on productivity. Something might be especially important precisely because it is difficult or uncommon. The argument needs compromise to make the legislative process more productive, not a claim about when compromise matters most.
- CCorrect
This links the tendency established by the premises to the productivity claimed in the conclusion. Fewer parties lead, through broader issue coverage and prioritizing, to greater willingness to compromise. The author needs that willingness to help make the legislature productive; otherwise the chain stops short of the conclusion.
- D
The argument compares multiparty democracies with one another. It doesn't need to establish whether nondemocracies are more or less productive. Either answer to that separate comparison would leave the gap between compromise and productivity unchanged.
- E
The reasoning doesn't require universal disagreement on important issues. Legislators could all agree on some matters and compromise on others. That possibility would be compatible with the proposed relationship between fewer parties, compromise, and productivity.
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