Self-study
Classicist: Support In the ancient Athenian democracy, unlike in any other political system in world history, the legislature consisted of all eligible voters. ████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████████████ ████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███████
Summary
The author concludes that if there has been a true democracy, it must have been in ancient Athens. Why? Because in ancient Athens, the legislature consisted of all eligible voters, and this wasn’t true for any other political system in world history. This meant that in Athens, individual voters made all political decisions by direct vote.
Missing Connection
We’re trying to prove that if something was a true democracy, it must have been in ancient Athens. But none of the premises tell us what’s required to be a true democracy. So at a minimum, we know the correct answer should tell us what’s required for a true democracy.
We can go further to anticipate a more specific connection. What was the quality that was found only in ancient Athens? The legislature consisted of all eligible voters, who made all political decisions. If we can establish that in order to be a true democracy, a polical system must have the quality that was found only in ancient Athens — legislature consisting of all eligible voters, who made all political decisions — then we will prove that only ancient Athens could have been a true democracy.
2.
The conclusion of the classicist's ████████ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
Most political systems ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ████████████
(A) doesn’t tell me what’s required to be a true democracy. If neither this answer nor the premises establish what’s required to be a true democracy, (A) cannot make the argument valid.
b
Public debate is ██ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████████████ ████████
(B) doesn’t tell me what’s required to be a true democracy. If neither this answer nor the premises establish what’s required to be a true democracy, (B) cannot make the argument valid.
c
Athens was the ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ █ ██████████ █████████ ███████
(C) doesn’t tell me what’s required to be a true democracy. Learning that Athens was the only ancient Greek city with a democratic political system does not establish that there were no “true” democracies elsewhere in the world either in ancient times or at any other time.
d
A political system ██ ███ █ ████ █████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
(D) establishes that in order to be a true democracy, the eligible voters must vote directly on all political decisions. The premises establish that this happened only in ancient Athens.
e
Most Athenians who ████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ █████████ ██████████
(E) doesn’t tell me what’s required to be a true democracy. If neither this answer nor the premises establish what’s required to be a true democracy, (E) cannot make the argument valid.