PrepTest 113

[lcid:3551] Prep Test 113 LSAT — Logical Reasoning — S4 Logical reasoning

Question prompt

Large–scale government projects designed Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: A

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Strengthen with Necessary Premise Questions

Stimulus Summary

Premise 1 - Large scale government projects benefit some people more than others
Premise 2 - The more equally power is split up between citizens, the less likely these projects are to happen
Main point - Governing with referendums diminishes welfare over governing by representatives

Answer Anticipation

Strengthen with Necessary Premise questions frequently feature new concepts that show up in the conclusion, and we need to find an answer that connects these concepts to the premises. But in this question, it’s a little harder to spot what that new concept is as the whole conclusion seems to bring in new concepts!
In the conclusion here, the author compares government by referendum to government by elected representatives. That seems to be a new concept that wasn’t referenced in the premises, but it actually was! The second premise talks about equally and widely distributing political power. A referendum would give each member of society a vote on a proposed law/project, whereas electing representatives would concentrate that power in fewer people. So while the terms in the conclusion are new, the concepts they relate to aren’t.
The other concept in the conclusion is the welfare of society. And while the stimulus does discuss some segments benefitting from large-scale government projects, that’s not the same as the welfare of a society as a whole. So this is the new concept that we’re going to need to connect to the premises.
Going back to the concept that is supported by the premises, what do we know about the governments with different levels of equality in the distribution of political power? Those that have a more equal distribution (i.e., the ones governed by referendum) are less likely to fund these large-scale government projects. From this decreased likelihood of these projects being funded, the argument concludes that there’s a diminution of the welfare of a society. For that to be true, these projects need to in some way enhance that welfare so that not doing them has the opposite effect. Let’s find an answer establishing that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Large–scale government projects sometimes Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    This answer matches our anticipation. If large-scale government projects never enhance the welfare of society, then having them be less likely in a government that makes decisions by referenda wouldn’t hurt the welfare of society, killing the argument. This answer is therefore necessary for the conclusion to hold and is correct.
  2. B
    Large–scale projects are more Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The argument doesn’t discuss or rely on these projects being accomplished by the private sector, so this answer is incorrect. In fact, if anything, the public sector picking up the slack and doing a better job might mean having a government where these projects are less likely to be done by the government would result in an enhancement of the public welfare.
  3. C
    Government by referendum actually Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    The democratic process is out of scope - there’s nothing tying it to the welfare of a society.
  4. D
    The primary purpose of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    The purpose doesn’t determine the outcome, so this answer isn’t necessary for the argument to hold. Additionally, even if it did, the equal distribution would describe the government by referenda, and the argument concludes that that diminishes the welfare of society.
  5. E
    Government by referendum is Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    The argument treats the distribution of political power as existing on a spectrum - it can be more or less equally and widely distributed - so the argument doesn’t require any one system to be the only way to distribute power equally and widely.

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