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

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

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

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?

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?



P.S. : i opted for option B but now I think E has an edge over B. Otherwise option B and E are very similar.

Question Stem says that amendment to the constitution can be initiated after a successful vote on national referendum. And a referendum can be initiated by collecting 100,000 voter's signature in support of issues.
Conclusion : Swiss government must be spending a lot of time amending the country's constitution which means A major portion of the period of Swiss government is utilized in constitution amendment. Now lets get down to options.

A. Swiss citizens initiate many referenda every year.
This doesn't tell whether refrenda is about constitutional amendment or not.

B. It is easy for a citizen to collect 100,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment within 18 months.
Citizens can easily collect 100,000 signatures for constitutional amendment within 18 months which means a lot of referendum can be initiated by the citizens but citizens do it or not is not clear. If the citizens do raise a lots of referendum regarding constitutional amendment, surely it is going to take a lots of time of swiss govt. Though this is a strong contender of the correct answer, we will check other options. If there is no better option we can go for this one.

C. The Swiss government spends much more time on constitutional amendments than governments of other countries do.
It spends much more time than other countries but it is not clear that whether it spends a lots of time or not which a major portion of swiss govt. governance time.

D. All referenda must be initiated by Swiss citizens over 18 years old.
This is out of scope. Even if this is the case a lot or very less referenda may be raised.

E. Referenda requiring constitutional amendments are both frequent and popular with Swiss voters.
Now this is one step ahead of Option B. Option B states that people can easily raise Referenda requiring constitutional amendment. This option says that the referenda is actually raised and it is popular with swiss voters. SO this option is better and one step ahead of Option B. Hence this is the correct answer


Answer E

Conclusion: Clearly, the Swiss government must be spending a lot of time amending the country's constitution.

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

True it may be frequent, but it still needs to have the required votes (>50%) to actually act on it and change constitution.
Same for popularity. It may very well be popular, but this does not guarantee than all voters would turn up and actually vote and thereby ask the government to actually act on it and change constitution.

So how can this strengthen the conclusion beats me...

AnirudhaS

I think you are mistaking "strengthen" for "prove." It is extremely rare for a strengthen answer to prove the conclusion correct. All we need is for the answer to make the connection between premise and conclusion stronger and more logical. The author tells us "To get an amendment on the ballot, you just need to do X. So amendments must happen often." This requires the assumptions that those requirements are often met, and that when amendments are on the ballot, they pass. The right answer doesn't need to support both conclusions, nor does it need to prove either one correct. However, E does address both of these assumptions, telling us that a) referenda do often occur and b) voters like them. If those things are true, the conclusion seems much more likely than it would if those things were not true. That's all we need from a strengthen!

­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.

Meaning - 
Necessary condition - A successful vote on a national referendum is a minimum condition for an amendment to the constitution to be initiated. 
Sufficient condition - If amendment is initiated, then a successful vote on the national referendum must have been carried out. 

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

Option Elimination -

A. Swiss citizens initiate many referenda every year. - Initiating doesn't mean a successful vote. Distortion. Wrong. 

B. It is easy for a citizen to collect 100,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment within 18 months. - We already know from the passage when it says "merely." Distortion. 

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

D. All referenda must be initiated by Swiss citizens over 18 years old. - Out of scope. 

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

 
­Here's my thought on this !
A. Swiss citizens initiate many referenda every year.
Citizens might initiate a lot many referendas but this option does not specify if all these got 100,000 votes within 18 months. There might be only 1 that got as many votes within 18 months.
B. It is easy for a citizen to collect 100,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment within 18 months.
This option just tells us that it is easy to collect 100,000 signatures but does not tell the amount of Referenda. It might be that only 1 referenda was initiated in span of 18 months. So this does not mean that Govt is working alot.
C. The Swiss government spends much more time on constitutional amendments than governments of other countries do.
Nonsense
D. All referenda must be initiated by Swiss citizens over 18 years old.
Nonsense
E. Referenda requiring constitutional amendments are both frequent and popular with Swiss voters.
Correct : Referenda is frequent and popular among voters. Meaning there will be referendas frequently and govt has to work no stop on it.

Hi MartyMurray!

Could you please clarify the difference b/w (A) & (E)

aren't both saying the same things?

(E) I felt could be eliminated because constitutional amendments require voting a referendum

not that referendum require amendments

if you could provide your insights!

Or any expert can, thanks!

DmitryFarber
GMATNinjaTwo
ChiranjeevSingh
KarishmaB

The part about "require amendments" is the key difference. A referendum is just a vote by the people on an issue, often in an advisory capacity. We're trying to establish that the government actually spends a lot of time amending the constitution, so it's not enough to know that there are many referenda. We need to know that these referenda are proposing constitutional amendments, and that the voters approve the amendments. Answer choice A doesn't make that clear; the referenda could be about other things, and they might usually fail. E, on the other hand, makes it clear that there are many referenda that create constitutional amendments, and that these measures are popular, so that they are likely to actually be enacted.