Democratic societies in which there is widespread discontent more often blame their politicians than they do other powerful figures who are at least as responsible for those societies' woes. ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████████ ████████
We start with a pretty complicated comparative claim. Let’s break it down. Certain democratic societies – ones in which there’s widespread discontent – blame one group more than another group. The first group is politicians. The second group is “other powerful figures.” What are politicians blamed for more than the other powerful figures? For the “societies’ woes.” So, for example, rather than blaming judges who render poor legal decisions, or police chiefs who implement unwise patrol policies, societies more often plame politicians.
The author tells us the main cause for the societies’ tendency to blame politicians. It’s because people in these societies think they have more power over politicians than the others. It’s not because of any differences in how familiar the public is with each kind of person.
What’s a generalization that the stimulus would support? Well, we’re told that societies tend to blame one group over another primarily because people in those societies think they have more power over the first group than the second group. Here’s one potential generalization: the amount of power people feel they have over a group can influence their tendency to blame that group.
Let’s keep an open mind; I’m not expecting the correct answer to match my loose prediction exactly.
The case described above best ███████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████████
Often the people ███ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██████
(A) asserts that often, the people with the “most” power in a society are not those who the public perceives as having the most power. Did the stimulus give us an example of people with the most power in a society? We don’t know. The stimulus told us about politicians and “other powerful figures.” But it never told us whether politicians were in fact more powerful than those other figures, or vice versa. And, it never told us that either of these groups were the most powerful in societies.
In addition, the stimulus never told us whom the public perceives to have the most power in society. We only learn that the public thinks it has more power over politicians than other figures. But this doesn’t establish public perception about which group is more powerful, or the most powerful in society.
People tend to ███████ ████ █████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████████
(B) asserts a comparison that isn’t supported by the stimulus. We know that between two powerful groups – politicians and other figures – people tend to blame politicians. But we don’t know whether people perceive politicians as more powerful than other figures or vice versa. The stimulus never gives us enough information to rank these two groups on their actual power or on their perceived (ascribed) power. We are given enough to rank them on whom the public perceives is more subject to the public’s own power, but that’s a different concept.
To the extent ████ █ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████████
(C) tells us that being well known to the public makes one more likely to be blamed for society’s problems. But the stimulus doesn’t give us enough to know whether politicians are more well known than other powerful figures. In fact, the stimulus specifically tells us that the reason for the politicians’ blame is “not primarily because politicians are more familiar to people than are other powerful figures.”
Publicly known people ███ ███████ ███ ████ ████████████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████████ ████ ██████
(D) asserts an opinion – that public known people are usually not held responsible enough (sufficiently) for the problems they cause. The opinion aspect of this answer is a clear reason to eliminate it. The stimulus never gave us any evidence to suggest that politicians or other figures are or are not blamed as much as they should be.
People are more ████████ ██ █████ █ ████████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██████
(E) tells us that for publicly known persons, societies are more inclined to blame those over whom people think they have power than those over whom people think they do not have power. (E) is best illustrated by the stimulus, because the stimulus provided a causal connection between the level of power society feels it has over someone and the likelihood that society will blame that person. Between politicians and other powerful figures, the public feels it has more power over politicians, and this is why the public tends to blame politicians more often than the others.
You might find small reasons to quibble with (E). Perhaps you don’t like that the other powerful figures in the stimulus were not explicitly stated to be publicly known. Any flaw you see in (E) could, at best, only be a reason that (E) does not have to be true based on the stimulus. But that’s holding the correct answer to too high a standard; we’re simply looking for the best supported answer.
Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.
It takes about five minutes.
Take the free diagnostic