LSAT 117 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q16

LR Question 16 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Sociologist: Some economists hold that …

QUESTION TYPE: Identify the Conclusion

CONCLUSION: You can support democracy and still support market regulation.

REASONING:

• Some economists argue that democracy means unregulated markets because markets let people “vote with their money”
• This view ignores the difference between private consumers and public citizens
• As private consumers, we think about our own needs. As public citizens, we think about our collective needs.

ANALYSIS: There’s a pretty clear conclusion indicator here. If you didn’t catch it, you should look up conclusion indicator words and become familiar with them. Here, it was “Hence”.

The conclusion is simply what comes after “hence”, i.e. the last sentence. It says you can support democracy and still support regulating markets.

___________

1. This is a premise, not the conclusion. The sociologist uses the idea that citizens think about “we” rather than “I” to support the conclusion.
2. It doesn’t say that unregulated markets are incompatible with democracy. The conclusion is much weaker: you can support democracy without supporting unregulated markets.
3. This is the economists’ view that the sociologist is criticizing.
4. This is another supporting premise.
5. CORRECT. This just paraphrases the conclusion. If you can support democracy and support regulation, then you get answer E.