QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption
CONCLUSION: The only true democracy was in Athens. (If Athens even was a democracy)
REASONING: Athens was the only democracy where all voters sat in the legislature and voted directly.
ANALYSIS: This is a fairly straightforward sufficient assumption question. First, focus on the conclusion: the classicist says that only Athens was a direct democracy. If Athens even was. So, we can draw this and split it apart:
True Democracy only Athens
Then, fill in the evidence. We know that only Athens had direct voting. So, you can add that in and spot the gap:
True Democracy Direct voting —> only Athens
So, if we assume that true Democracy requires direct voting, then we can say that only ancient Athens was potentially a direct democracy.
This question has a bit of an unusual structure for a sufficient assumption question, and you might be better off simply focussing on the different words used in the reasoning (“direct votes”) and the conclusion (“true democracy”). Then look for the answer with both words. Since the first question is usually easier, you can kind of wing it and figure simply identifying the right words is enough. (On harder questions there may be two answers with the right words).
___________
- The argument was already assuming this was true! It went further than this and said no other political system was a democracy, apart from ancient Athens. This answer merely mildly strengthens the argument. We need something to prove it 100% correct.
- This statement applies to basically any vaguely democratic society. Almost every society that calls itself democratic has some sort of public debate.
So this does nothing to support the classicist’s more stringent argument that only Athens was a true democracy. We need a factor unique to Athens: direct democracy. - Too weak! We’re trying to prove than ancient Athens was the only society in world history that was democratic. This answer only covers ancient Greece.
- CORRECT. If this is true, then only Athens could possibly have been a true democracy. After all, only Athens had voters directly vote on all political decisions.
- This doesn’t really matter. The argument didn’t specify if all voters had to actually vote each time, or merely be eligible. It’s normal to expect some electors might be home sick or otherwise miss some votes.
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