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Tocqueville, a nineteenth-century writer

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by gmat25 » Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:49 am
Tocqueville, a nineteenth-century writer known for his study of democracy in the United States, believed that a government that centralizes power in one individual or institution is dangerous to its citizens. Biographers claim that Tocqueville disliked centralized government because he blamed Napoleon's rule for the poverty of his childhood in Normandy.
Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the biographers' claim?
(A) Although Napoleon was popularly blamed at the time for the terrible living conditions in Normandy, historians now know that bad harvests were really to blame for the poor economic conditions.
(B) Napoleon was notorious for refusing to share power with any of his political associates.
(C) Tocqueville said he knew that if his father had not suffered ill health, his family would have had a steady income and a comfortable standard of living.
(D) Although Tocqueville asserted that United States political life was democratic, the United States of the nineteenth century allowed political power to be concentrated in a few institutions.
(E) Tocqueville once wrote in a letter that, although his childhood was terribly impoverished, it was not different from the experience of his friends and neighbors in Normandy.

OA is C i have no issues with the OA but m not able to find any proper reason to drop Op A
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by Taurus Online » Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:58 am
Option A is incorrect because it says that historians "now" know that bad harvests were really to blame for the poor economic conditions, whereas Tocqueville lived in the nineteenth-century. Thus, he wouldn't have known this fact. So, option A won't weaken the biographers' claim.
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by Ozlemg » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:45 pm
I was btw C and D

D asserts that he does not know the true meaning of democracy and he addresses it wrongly. That's why he blames Naepoleon

But i agree C weakens more than D does.
The more you suffer before the test, the less you will do so in the test! :)
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