Q23 - Although most people favor the bill

[JohnZ880]

I got this one wrong, but here's how I figured it out in blind review.

Stimulus breakdown:
(1) most people favor the bill
(2) doesn't violate anyone's human rights
(3) those adversely affected are influential
(4) (sub-conclusion) Therefore, the bill won't pass
(5) (main conclusion) This county isn't a well functioning democracy

Gap: We need a principle that tells us that if a country is a well-functioning democracy, then 1-4 occur OR if 1-4 do not occur, then said country is not a well-functioning democracy

Answer Choice (E) gives us the former. The trick is that they carefully hid the conditional relationship in the language, so I re-wrote (E):
Well functioning democracy --> (bill doesn't violate anyone's basic human rights + favored by most --> passes)

If the relationship does not hold, then we've effectively failed the necessary condition. We know from the stimulus that the relationship doesn't hold. Therefore, the necessary condition fails and we can conclude that we Country X isn't a well-functioning Democracy.

[AlisaS425]

I was wrong on Q23, tempted by (B), (D), and (E). Previous threads have talked about many important points, and I want to weigh in more on (B).

(B) "if democracy is well functioning, then any bill opposed by influential people but favored by most other people will eventually pass into law."

Compared (B) with the stimulus, especially the part where the stimulus tells us "those people who would be adversely affected were it become law are very influential". IMO, this suggests that people who would be adversely affected by the passage of the bill (NOT by the bill itself!) are very influential. (Please correct me if my understanding is wrong..)

Understanding the stimulus in this way, we could then explore the problem in (B). (B) says "... any bill opposed by influential people ..." - the author doesn't address "bill opposed by influential people", but rather "the passage of bill opposed by influential people". That's one part of me seeing why (B) is incorrect. (another reason that (B) is wrong is that it doesn't include the part that "this bill doesn't violate any basic human rights", but that's already suggested in previous threads.)

Any thoughts?

[BarryM800]

Think I analyzed the stimulus incorrectly from the start. I thought "although" is an indicator of opposing/counter-premise, which should not be counted as premise. Therefore, the sole premise/reason of the intermediate conclusion that "the bill will not be passed for many year, if at all" is: "people, who would be adversely affected, were it to become law, are very influential." It will be odd to say that the premise/reason for the bill not passing is "most people favor the bill" or "the bill does not violate anyone's basic human rights."

Then, the final conclusion is that this whole situation signifies that the country is not a well-functioning democracy. So the my analysis of the stimulus is: (influential people adversely affected → bill not passed) → NOT well-functioning democracy. Apparently, the correct answer choice comes from a different read of the stimulus: (most people favor the bill + the bill does not violet basic human rights → bill not passed) → NOT well-functioning democracy.

So is my reading at least valid, albeit it did not bear fruit in terms of aligning with any of the answer choices? Also, which part of the stimulus indicates that the "although" piece is actually the premise of the argument? Thanks!

[Misti Duvall]

Think I analyzed the stimulus incorrectly from the start. I thought "although" is an indicator of opposing/counter-premise, which should not be counted as premise. Therefore, the sole premise/reason of the intermediate conclusion that "the bill will not be passed for many year, if at all" is: "people, who would be adversely affected, were it to become law, are very influential." It will be odd to say that the premise/reason for the bill not passing is "most people favor the bill" or "the bill does not violate anyone's basic human rights."

Then, the final conclusion is that this whole situation signifies that the country is not a well-functioning democracy. So the my analysis of the stimulus is: (influential people adversely affected → bill not passed) → NOT well-functioning democracy. Apparently, the correct answer choice comes from a different read of the stimulus: (most people favor the bill + the bill does not violet basic human rights → bill not passed) → NOT well-functioning democracy.

So is my reading at least valid, albeit it did not bear fruit in terms of aligning with any of the answer choices? Also, which part of the stimulus indicates that the "although" piece is actually the premise of the argument? Thanks!

I think you're almost there with both reads, and that both of the first two sentences are premises. The word although is providing a pivot, and shouldn't be taken as an indicator of premise or not a premise.

Hope this helps.