Dissolution of Freedom Party

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Dissolution of Freedom Party

by rahulvsd » Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:32 am
The recently announced dissolution of the Freedom Party, a major national political party, will not benefit the one other major national political party, the Liberty Party. It will, however, help third parties, including the Workers Party, who will now take more votes away from the Liberty Party in the upcoming national presidential race than would have been taken by the Freedom Party, had it not been dissolved.

Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above?

A. Name recognition is a better predictor of a political party's success than how well its positions match with public opinion.
B. Most voters had considered the Freedom Party and the Liberty Party to have very similar positions on most key issues.
C. The Workers Party only runs political candidates in local elections, including those for city council members, assemblymen, and mayors.
D. Polls indicate that most voters believe that candidates for third parties are more honest and trustworthy than are candidates for major national parties.
E. The dissolution of a major political party inevitably causes many voters to change their long-standing voting habits and vote for parties they have never voted for in the past.

[spoiler]OA: C. Why can't B be the answer here. Since the FP and LP have similar ethos people who would have voted for FP will now vote for LP. Hence smaller parties will not gain. [/spoiler]
Last edited by rahulvsd on Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by Birottam Dutta » Sun Apr 22, 2012 4:37 am
Please write the question along with the argument and the options!

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by klmehta03 » Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:59 am
The question refers to "MOST" serious doubt....
to me both B and C weakens the argument but C clearly says that WP runs in local elections and the argument refers to "Upcoming National Presidential Race"

So answer is C
Hope this helps

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by ice_rush » Sun Apr 22, 2012 4:33 pm
on the gmat most means more than 50 percent. Say 51% of the voters considered freedom and liberty parties to have similar positions..What about the remaining 49% of the voters?? See how this cannot weaken the argument?
On top of that choice B goes on to say..similar position on most key issues..again it is a grey area because we don't know what key issues are important to different voters.

Hope this helps!

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by chris@magoosh » Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:59 am
The difference between (B) and (C) is as follows:

(B) suggests that many workers would probably switch from the Freedom Party to the Liberty Party. Assuming, of course, that similar positions on most key issues is enough for a person to switch from one party to another. Another thing is we don't really know anything about the Worker's Party. Perhaps many in the Freedom Party shared views with the Worker's Party. All in all, this answer is too wishy-washy and not definitive. That is we have to make too many assumptions to make it work.

(C) The Answer

(C) clearly gives us a reason that would cast serious doubt on the last sentence: at issue are national elections. The Worker's Party only runs in local elections. Therefore, it could not possibly take votes away from the Liberty Party in a national election.

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by minhchau1986 » Fri Apr 27, 2012 7:24 am
Thanks chris. As I go to all the answer choices, I overlook the national vote and local votes.
A, D, E are clearly edit of scope. Coming down to B and C
B: eliminated because asking my self a question that how voters choose over FP over LP if they both have the Same position on the key issues. It does not tie to the fact that workers party run in local vote rather than national vote. Tough one. choose C