LSAT PrepTest 137 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 23

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Can a sovereign have unlimited legal power. ██ █ █████████ ████ ████ █████████ █████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ██████ ███████ █████████████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ██ █████████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████████

Question · Can a sovereign be omnipotent?

If so, then the sovereign has the power to limit its own power which means it no longer has unlimited power. That's the paradox of omnipotence.

OPA · Sovereign omnipotence can be a source of difficulty for soverigns

E.g., the English and French monarchies experienced this

OPA · It can be good for sovereigns to have their power be limited

E.g., having absolute power means you can refuse to honor debts which means that you can't get a loan.

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OPA Example · French and English's unlimited power hurt them

These sovereigns failed to pay debt and expropriated property. Consequently, creditors started demanding high interest rates to capture risk of default.

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OPA Solution / Conclusion · The Parliament's limit of the Crown's power resolved the paradox

The Parliament was able to credibly commit the Crown to honor is debts. Consequently, the Crown was able to borrow at a much lower rate.

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OPA legacy · Constitutional limits to powers as a benefit is now the conventional view

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Author’s Critique · Constitutions can fail to limit power

Author’s Argument · Did not solve the problem; merely shifted it

The paradox of omnipotence still exists. All the constitution does is to take omnipotence away from the Crown and give it to itself, the Parliament.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Problem-analysis

23.

Which one of the following ██████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Implied

Principle or generalization

In the last paragraph, the author points out that moving omnipotent power from monarchs to Parliament doesn’t solve the paradox of omnipotence, but merely relocates it. Let’s look for a principle that underlies this argument.

The adequacy of █ ████████ ██ █ █████████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ███████████████

The author’s point in the last paragraph is a theoretical one. She hasn’t pointed out a practical problem resulting from giving Parliament omnipotent power. So (A) doesn’t underlie the author’s argument.

15%

A genuine solution ██ █ █████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███████████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ████████

Supported, because the author’s argument is that moving power to Parliament isn’t a real solution, since it doesn’t eliminate the fundamental cause of a government branch having omnipotent power. Although moving power to Parliament may have solved the practical effects of the paradox of omnipotence by making creditors more willing to lend to the monarch, it didn’t get rid of the source of the paradox. One branch of government still has sovereign omnipotence.

70%

A problem inherent ██ █ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████

The author doesn’t suggest that a form of government needs to be completely abandoned in order to solve the problem of sovereign omnipotence.

In terms of █████████ █████████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████ █████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████

The author doesn’t suggest that it’s practically better for legal power to rest with Parliament than with the monarch. The author’s argument isn’t that one arrangement is better or worse; it’s that the arrangement in which Parliament has sovereign power doesn’t solve the problem of omnipotence.

A country's constitution ██████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████████

The author never suggests that a constitution should specify powers of a government branches.

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PrepTest 137 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 23

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