Self-study
Support Campaigning for election to provincial or state office frequently requires that a candidate spend much time and energy catering to the interests of national party officials who can help the candidate to win office. ███ ███████ █████████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ █████ ███████████████
Argument Summary
The argument starts with the claim that campaigning to be elected to provincial or state office often requires candidates to devote "much time and energy" to serving the interests of national party officials who can help them be reelected. From this premise, the author concludes that elected officials running for reelection while in office often fail to serve the interests of their local constituencies.
Analysis: Necessary Assumptions
Let's be clear on what the author's conclusion is: not that all candidates running for election fail to serve local constituencies, but specifically elected officials running for reelection while in office. Remember that the only premise provided in support of this conclusion is that running for election often requires candidates to devote their time and energy to the interests of national party officials. So the author must assume something like the idea that elected officials, while in office, cannot typically both serve the interests of their local constituencies and devote time and energy to catering to national party officials' interests.
4.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Catering to the █████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████████ █████████ █████████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ █ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████████ █████ ███████████████
Correct. Imagine negating this answer choice: Catering to the interests of national party officials never conflicts with serving the interests of a provincial or state official’s local constituencies. If this were true, then the argument would fall apart. The fact that officials running for election must often cater to national party officials' interests (the only premise) would not at all imply that officials running for reelection while in office would therefore often fail to serve their local constituencies. Since negating (A) destroys the argument, (A) is a necessary assumption.
b
Only by catering ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ███████████
Incorrect. The premise states that running for election to state or provincial office often requires candidates to cater to the interests of national party officials. It doesn't say that being elected or reelected always requires this, and the argument never assumes this.
c
The interests of █████ ██████████████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ██████████
Incorrect. The argument doesn't tell us anything about elected officials who cater to the interests of national party officials in general, only about those who do so as part of their campaign for reelection. And even for this latter group, we're not told that they never serve the interests of their local constituencies, only that they often do not. So (C) goes further than the argument does, and is not a necessary assumption.
To put it another way, picture negating (C): "The interests of local constituencies are not well served only by elected officials who do not cater to the interests of national party officials." All this does is open up the possibility that the interests of local constituencies can be well served even by elected officials who do cater to the interests of national party officials. But again, the argument already leaves this possibility open; all it says is that some officials who cater to national party officials' interests, specifically while running for reelection while in office, often do not serve their local constituencies. So, because negating (C) doesn't destroy the argument, (C) isn't a necessary assumption.
d
Officials elected to ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██ ██ ███ ██████████
Incorrect. Nothing in the argument requires this to be true. If we negate this ("Officials elected to provincial or state office are not obligated to serve only the interests of constituents who belong to the same party as do the officials"), it leaves the argument untouched. So (D) is not a necessary assumption.
e
All elected officials ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████
Incorrect. Nothing in the argument requires all elected officials to be "likely" to seek reelection. The argument doesn't assume anything about how likely or unlikely officials are to seek reelection, it only talks about those who do seek reelection while in office.