Self-study
Editorial: Support Our society has a vested interest in maintaining a political system in which candidates are free to adhere to their principles. ███ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ █████ ███████████ █████ ██████████ ██████ ██████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ ██████████
Summary
The author argues that the government should pay for campaigns. The author’s reasoning is that campaigns are very costly and often require seeking funding from private sources, which in turn requires candidates to compromise their own principles. Since society has a vested interest in ensuring candidates can stick to their principles, the government should fund campaigns.
Notable Assumptions
An assumption is that if society has a vested interest in something, the government should help fund it. We know that the government funding campaigns would support an interest of society, but we aren’t given any information about how the government should make funding decisions. Should the government fund everything that is in the interest of society, or should it only support certain projects? The author assumes the former.
24.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Candidates should not ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ███████████
The argument is about whether the government should fund campaigns, not about whether candidates should run for office. The point of the argument is that the government should fund elections so that candidates don’t have to compromise their principles.
b
Candidates wealthy enough ██ ███████ █████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████ ████ ███████ ████████
Like (A), (B) is talking about what candidates should do, whereas the argument is talking about what the government should do.
c
Voters should not ███████ █ █████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████████
(C) is talking about what voters should do, whereas the argument is talking about what the government should do. The argument doesn’t say anything about how voters should choose a candidate to support.
d
The government should ███████ █ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ███████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████
This is key. If the government shouldn’t finance all activities that further an interest of society, then it’s invalid to conclude that the government should finance campaigns just because it will further an interest of society. (D) helps justify the reasoning in the argument.
e
Private funding for █████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████████ █████████ ██████
(D) sets up a scenario where private funding should be encouraged — but the argument doesn’t do the same. The argument is saying that the government should finance campaigns, it’s not saying that there are special cases where private funding should be encouraged.