LSAT 114 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q21

LR Question 21 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Political scientist: As a political system, democracy…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: Democracy doesn’t promote freedom.

REASONING: Some democracies haven’t been free and some oligarchies have been free.

ANALYSIS: If something promotes freedom then that means it increases freedom on average. It could be the case that democracy promotes freedom even if there are occasional failures.

And just because democracy promotes freedom doesn’t mean that all other societies will be unfree.

___________

1. No. Democracy isn’t a necessary or a sufficient condition for freedom. It just tends to make more of it, on average.
2. This gets it backwards. We’re trying to show that democracy leads to freedom, usually. This says freedom leads to democracy.
3. The historical examples are quite relevant. If all past democratic societies were unfree then the claim starts to look a bit shaky.
4. CORRECT. Not everything is a necessary or sufficient condition. For example, exercise promotes health even though it isn’t necessary or sufficient. 
5. What personal point of view? The political scientist doesn’t say anything about him or herself.