In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co : Critical Reasoning (CR)

B

deep14

Intern

Joined: 21 Nov 2014

Posts: 35

Own Kudos [?]: 40 [1]

Given Kudos: 16

Location: India

Schools: ISB '18

GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V38

GPA: 3.7

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

11 Jan 2017, 00:31

1

Kudos

asiscool wrote:

In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the constitution can only be initiated after a successful vote on a national referendum. In order to initiate a referendum, a citizen must merely collect 100,000 voters' signatures, in support of a given issue, over a period of 18 months. Clearly, the Swiss government must be spending a lot of time amending the country's constitution.

Which of the following premises, if true, best supports the conclusion above?

A. Swiss citizens initiate many referenda every year.
B. It is easy for a citizen to collect 100,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment within 18 months.
C. The Swiss government spends much more time on constitutional amendments than governments of other countries do.
D. All referenda must be initiated by Swiss citizens over 18 years old.
E. Referenda requiring constitutional amendments are both frequent and popular with Swiss voters.

E.
B is a fact that very remotely weakens the conclusion. C and D are irrelevant. A is close but not specific enough for the given argument. It talks about any referenda, not just the ones involving constitutional ammendment

S

arunavamunshi1988

Manager

Joined: 22 Mar 2014

Posts: 79

Own Kudos [?]: 36 [2]

Given Kudos: 136

Location: United States

Concentration: Finance, Operations

GMAT 1: 530 Q45 V20

GPA: 3.91

WE:Information Technology (Computer Software)

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

11 Jan 2017, 12:54

2

Bookmarks

deep14 wrote:

asiscool wrote:

In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the constitution can only be initiated after a successful vote on a national referendum. In order to initiate a referendum, a citizen must merely collect 100,000 voters' signatures, in support of a given issue, over a period of 18 months. Clearly, the Swiss government must be spending a lot of time amending the country's constitution.

Which of the following premises, if true, best supports the conclusion above?

A. Swiss citizens initiate many referenda every year.
B. It is easy for a citizen to collect 100,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment within 18 months.
C. The Swiss government spends much more time on constitutional amendments than governments of other countries do.
D. All referenda must be initiated by Swiss citizens over 18 years old.
E. Referenda requiring constitutional amendments are both frequent and popular with Swiss voters.

E.
B is a fact that very remotely weakens the conclusion. C and D are irrelevant. A is close but not specific enough for the given argument. It talks about any referenda, not just the ones involving constitutional ammendment

Can you please explain why E is correct? How the popularity of referendum is linked to the time?

L

carcass

Board of Directors

Joined: 01 Sep 2010

Posts: 4418

Own Kudos [?]: 33005 [0]

Given Kudos: 4475

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

12 Jan 2017, 03:04

Top Contributor

A. Swiss citizens initiate many referenda every year.

No information about and out of scope

B. It is easy for a citizen to collect 100,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment within 18 months.

No information how and whether it is easy or not. out of scope

C. The Swiss government spends much more time on constitutional amendments than governments of other countries do.

What happens in other countries is out of scope

D. All referenda must be initiated by Swiss citizens over 18 years old.

No info about. Moreover, irrelevant

E. Referenda requiring constitutional amendments are both frequent and popular with Swiss voters.

The right choice

P

sobby

Current Student

Joined: 14 Nov 2014

Posts: 451

Own Kudos [?]: 363 [0]

Given Kudos: 54

Location: India

Schools: Rotman '20 (S) Kelley '21 (S) (A)

GMAT 1: 700 Q50 V34

GPA: 3.76

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

12 Jan 2017, 10:24

asiscool wrote:

In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the constitution can only be initiated after a successful vote on a national referendum. In order to initiate a referendum, a citizen must merely collect 100,000 voters' signatures, in support of a given issue, over a period of 18 months. Clearly, the Swiss government must be spending a lot of time amending the country's constitution.

Which of the following premises, if true, best supports the conclusion above?

A. Swiss citizens initiate many referenda every year.
B. It is easy for a citizen to collect 100,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment within 18 months.
C. The Swiss government spends much more time on constitutional amendments than governments of other countries do.
D. All referenda must be initiated by Swiss citizens over 18 years old.
E. Referenda requiring constitutional amendments are both frequent and popular with Swiss voters.

stumped by the queston..
i selected B .

D

abhishekdadarwal2009

Director

Joined: 04 Sep 2015

Posts: 552

Own Kudos [?]: 437 [1]

Given Kudos: 123

Location: India

WE:Information Technology (Computer Software)

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

17 Jan 2017, 16:19

1

Kudos

A. Swiss citizens initiate many referenda every year.
i chose A first but realized that the choice is blunt and vague as the referenda may or may not have constitutional amendments.
B. It is easy for a citizen to collect 100,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment within 18 months.
this choice also is not specific as it may be possible that ther is only one constitutional amenedment every 18months as the number of referendas are not specified.
C. The Swiss government spends much more time on constitutional amendments than governments of other countries do.
The comparison is out of scope
D. All referenda must be initiated by Swiss citizens over 18 years old.
the age limit is also out of scope
E. Referenda requiring constitutional amendments are both frequent and popular with Swiss voters.
correct answer by elemination

G

AR15J

Manager

Joined: 21 Aug 2016

Posts: 222

Own Kudos [?]: 153 [0]

Given Kudos: 145

Location: India

GPA: 3.9

WE:Information Technology (Computer Software)

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

24 Jan 2017, 12:53

Hi Expert,

Please explain the cause of rejecting the choice B. I read the existing post but am not convinced with the reason of rejecting choice B.

G

AR15J

Manager

Joined: 21 Aug 2016

Posts: 222

Own Kudos [?]: 153 [0]

Given Kudos: 145

Location: India

GPA: 3.9

WE:Information Technology (Computer Software)

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

24 Jan 2017, 12:54

Hi Expert,

Please explain the cause of rejecting the choice B. I read the existing post but am not convinced with the reason of rejecting choice B.

G

RMD007

Manager

Joined: 03 Jul 2016

Status:Countdown Begins...

Posts: 242

Own Kudos [?]: 144 [0]

Given Kudos: 80

Location: India

Concentration: Technology, Strategy

Schools: IIMB

GMAT 1: 580 Q48 V22

GPA: 3.7

WE:Information Technology (Consulting)

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

25 Jan 2017, 21:44

AR15J wrote:

Hi Expert,

Please explain the cause of rejecting the choice B. I read the existing post but am not convinced with the reason of rejecting choice B.

I got this question wrong, but I can explain why B is wrong here.

Argument structure is as follows:
In swiss -
1. Constitution can be initiated by referendum.
2. referendum should have--
i - Issue on which referendum is based should be 18 months long.
ii - 100K Signatures.
Conclusion - Swiss takes long time to amend a constitution.

To amend a constitution, time required is - Issue should be 18 months long + time reqd for a citizen to take 100K signatures.

If we say that it is easy to take 100K signatures, time reqd for overall process is likely to decrease. This is opposite of the conclusion.

Later part of option B i.e. for a constitutional amendment within 18 months. is a trap. It uses the phrase mentioned in argument but it is not relating to the argument.

B

linaanup@gmail.com

Intern

Joined: 18 Oct 2016

Posts: 6

Own Kudos [?]: [0]

Given Kudos: 25

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

28 Feb 2017, 12:34

" A.Swiss citizens initiate many referenda every year" Now read the first sentence "In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the constitution can only be initiated after a successful vote on a national referendum. In order to initiate a referendum, a citizen must merely collect 100,000 voters' signatures, in support of a given issue, over a period of 18 months..

Referenda cannot be initiated in 12 months.

Can anyone validate my assumption please?

S

nks2611

Manager

Joined: 24 Oct 2016

Posts: 196

Own Kudos [?]: 65 [0]

Given Kudos: 89

Location: India

Concentration: Finance, International Business

Schools: IIMB

GMAT 1: 550 Q42 V28

GPA: 3.96

WE:Human Resources (Retail Banking)

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

28 Feb 2017, 22:54

down to option B&E, chose E as the answer , eliminated B because if It is easy for a citizen to collect 100,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment within 18 months, then why would swiss govt. spend a lot time on passing amendment. so does not supports the conclusion.

G

sleepynut

Manager

Joined: 29 Oct 2016

Posts: 164

Own Kudos [?]: 85 [0]

Given Kudos: 905

Concentration: Finance, Economics

GMAT 1: 620 Q50 V24

GRE 1: Q167 V147

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

01 Mar 2017, 03:10

Hi experts,
From this question,there are several steps to establish amendments to the constitution : 1) gather 100,000 signature 2) initiate a national referendum 3)successfully vote to amend the constitution

Option E tells us that Swiss voter are familiar with referenda.Just that,how it can be interpret that the government process will be long?

B

gmat4varun

Intern

Joined: 07 Sep 2016

Posts: 23

Own Kudos [?]: 8 [0]

Given Kudos: 2

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

01 Mar 2017, 03:24

I was stuck between two answer options Option A and Option E.
Option E is more appropriate as it says "Referenda requiring constitutional amendments are both frequent and popular" . Main point to note is the word Frequent, because if something is happening frequently then more time is spent doing that altogether .

Lets say doing one amendment takes 15 days and in a year if 10 amendments are happening then the today days is 15*10=150 .So for more number of amendments more time will be spent .

Hope I am able to make some point .

G

goforgmat

Senior Manager

Joined: 09 Feb 2015

Posts: 261

Own Kudos [?]: 88 [0]

Given Kudos: 233

Location: India

Concentration: Social Entrepreneurship, General Management

Schools: Booth '21 (D) Cambridge "21 (D) LBS '22 (D)

GMAT 1: 690 Q49 V34 Verified score

GMAT 2: 720 Q49 V39

GPA: 2.8

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

03 Mar 2017, 03:09

sayantanc2k wrote:

sleepynut wrote:

Hi experts,
From this question,there are several steps to establish amendments to the constitution : 1) gather 100,000 signature 2) initiate a national referendum 3)successfully vote to amend the constitution

Option E tells us that Swiss voter are familiar with referenda.Just that,how it can be interpret that the government process will be long?

That the precedure takes a long time is already given in the passage ("...over a period of 18 months"). In fact this part is the premise of the argument.

Premise: Procedure of amendment takes a long time.
Conclusion: Thus a lot of time is spent for amendment.

The above premise--> concluison would be invalid if there are no (or few) amendment requests - in that case, although it remains true that the procedure takes a long time, actually time would not be spent on the proceudre, because there are no (or few) amendment requests.

Option E is the required assumption that there are in fact many amendment requests, and thus a lot of time is actually required to be spent on amendments.

(Compare with the following:
Premise: I take a long time to read a book.
Conclusion: I soend a long time reading books.

If I do not read books at all, then my argument would be invalid.
Thus,
Assumption: There are quite a few books that I read.)

Is A only wrong because it talks about referenda in general not the ones requiring amendment?

G

sayantanc2k

CR Moderator

Joined: 14 Dec 2013

Posts: 2411

Own Kudos [?]: 15285 [0]

Given Kudos: 26

Location: Germany

Schools:

GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V47

WE:Corporate Finance (Pharmaceuticals and Biotech)

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

04 Mar 2017, 12:20

Expert Reply

goforgmat wrote:

sayantanc2k wrote:

sleepynut wrote:

Hi experts,
From this question,there are several steps to establish amendments to the constitution : 1) gather 100,000 signature 2) initiate a national referendum 3)successfully vote to amend the constitution

Option E tells us that Swiss voter are familiar with referenda.Just that,how it can be interpret that the government process will be long?

That the precedure takes a long time is already given in the passage ("...over a period of 18 months"). In fact this part is the premise of the argument.

Premise: Procedure of amendment takes a long time.
Conclusion: Thus a lot of time is spent for amendment.

The above premise--> concluison would be invalid if there are no (or few) amendment requests - in that case, although it remains true that the procedure takes a long time, actually time would not be spent on the proceudre, because there are no (or few) amendment requests.

Option E is the required assumption that there are in fact many amendment requests, and thus a lot of time is actually required to be spent on amendments.

(Compare with the following:
Premise: I take a long time to read a book.
Conclusion: I soend a long time reading books.

If I do not read books at all, then my argument would be invalid.
Thus,
Assumption: There are quite a few books that I read.)

Is A only wrong because it talks about referenda in general not the ones requiring amendment?

Yes, your understanding is correct.

B

rbramkumar

Intern

Joined: 24 Feb 2017

Posts: 29

Own Kudos [?]: 210 [0]

Given Kudos: 38

Schools: CBS '20 (S)

GMAT 1: 760 Q50 V42

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

09 Aug 2017, 20:52

sayantanc2k wrote:

goforgmat wrote:

Is A only wrong because it talks about referenda in general not the ones requiring amendment?

Yes, your understanding is correct.

Correct me if I'm wrong - I felt that Option A was a weakener as well as an irrelevant option.

The procedure to get signatures takes a long time (18 months). Option A mentions that they don't spend 18 months on every referendum. They have multiple things going on in parallel.

Possible outcomes of "Initiating" multiple referenda each year:
1. They initiate it - but many of them don't really get the 100,000 votes [Says nothing about the time spent - irrelevant]
2. They initiate it - but get the votes within 2 days? Not a lot of time spent, even though they have 18 months [says nothing about the time spent - irrelevant]
3. They do things in parallel - if they are allowed to initiate multiple referenda each year, they don't need to spend 36 months for 2 referenda, they can do it in the same year [weakens - says they spend less time because they can initiate multiple referenda in a year]

This is a trap option - makes you feel that they can do more in less time.

B

nitesh181989

Intern

Joined: 06 Sep 2013

Posts: 29

Own Kudos [?]: 34 [0]

Given Kudos: 284

Location: India

Concentration: Leadership, Strategy

Schools: ISB '19 (A)

GMAT 1: 770 Q50 V44 Verified score

GPA: 3.7

WE:Information Technology (Consulting)

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

10 Aug 2017, 00:05

I'm still unable to comprehend the reasoning behind option E.
Suppose the Swiss citizens initiate 100 referenda each year, a figure that may suggest that referenda's are popular among the citizens. However, it is not certain whether the referenda's would get the requisite number of votes. It is also possible that none of the referenda got the requisite number of votes, and hence no time was spent by the government in amending the Constitution.

B

rbramkumar

Intern

Joined: 24 Feb 2017

Posts: 29

Own Kudos [?]: 210 [0]

Given Kudos: 38

Schools: CBS '20 (S)

GMAT 1: 760 Q50 V42

Send PM

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

10 Aug 2017, 02:41

nitesh181989 wrote:

I'm still unable to comprehend the reasoning behind option E.
Suppose the Swiss citizens initiate 100 referenda each year, a figure that may suggest that referenda's are popular among the citizens. However, it is not certain whether the referenda's would get the requisite number of votes. It is also possible that none of the referenda got the requisite number of votes, and hence no time was spent by the government in amending the Constitution.

I re-read the question after your comment, and it looks like "if you get 100,000 votes, you can initiate the referendum". So, the idea of a referendum not getting enough votes is not valid.

So, E says - frequent (many referenda) & popular (that cross 100,000 votes) referenda that require constitutional amendment -> more time.
A refers to those referenda (generic; may include those that do not require amendment)

gmatclubot

Re: In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co [#permalink]

10 Aug 2017, 02:41

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

In Switzerland, one of Europe's smallest nations, amendments to the co