Self-study
Investment banker: Democracies require free-market capitalist economies, because a more controlled economy is incompatible with complete democracy. ███ ███████ █████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ████████████ ████████████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ████ █ ████████████ ██████ ██ █ ██████████ █████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ █████████ ████████████████ ████████ ███████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████
Summary
The banker concludes that people are wrong to criticize some governments’ recent anti-capitalistic measures. His reasoning is that, when a totalitarian government democratizes, it must take certain anti-capitalistic measures.
Notable Assumptions
The banker’s support is about countries that transition from totalitarian governments to democratic ones. But what if the governments in his conclusion aren’t undergoing such a transition? His argument wouldn’t provide any justification for anti-capitalistic measures in that case.
Therefore, the banker must assume that the nations were formerly totalitarian, and are now becoming democratic.
20.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ █████████
a
No current government ███ ███████ ██ ████████ █ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ██ ██ ████████ ███ █ ██████████ ██ ██████
The banker has no need to assume this: if a current government had reached a complete state of democracy, it would not contradict any part of his argument.
b
The more democratic █ ███████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███
The banker is saying that you need a threshold level of deregulation to be a democracy, not that more deregulation always leads to more democracy.
It’s like a Web site requiring a password of 8+ characters to create an account. A 20-character password doesn’t get more access.
c
The need for ████████ █████████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ████████████
This is irrelevant: the banker never indicates that economic stability is important to either democracy or free-market economies.
d
A free-market economy ██ ████████████ ████ █ █████████████ ███████
The banker argues that democracy requires a free-market economy, not that a free-market economy requires a democracy. It’s like he claimed that all oranges are fruits; that doesn’t mean he’s assuming that all fruits are oranges.
e
The nations whose ████████████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ █████
The only circumstances in which the banker has justified anticapitalistic measures are transitions away from totalitarian governments. If these nations were not making such a change, his argument gives no reason not to condemn these measures.