The move to shift the fiscal obligation to provide community services

Official Explanation

Argument construction

Instead of Federal government providing financial support to local communities, the communities themselves will have right to generate revenue and spend for the community needs. The proponents of this move hail this as a step forward on the road to true democracy. They claim that by making communities responsible for financing everything from health, welfare and education to the emergency services and housing, standards of services will improve, and it would also nurture a greater sense of belonging to community. The author claims that although such a move would mean that thickly populated areas would have more funds because they would then have a greater tax base; on the other hand, thinly populated, rural communities would still vie for subsidy from Federal sources so that they can also fund their services.

Let's dissect this argument.

Statement 1 (Boldface 1) (The move to … democracy): This is a claim. It asserts that in order to attain true democracy, the Federal government must make local communities self-sustainable by empowering them to generate and spend fund for their services.

So, BF1 is a claim made by the proponents.

Statement 2: (They claim … community.) This is an extension of the claim made by proponents. Its purpose is to articulate the objectives laid out in the claim.

Statement 3 (Boldface 2): (However, … Federal sources.). This is a claim made by the author. The author puts his findings across and challenges the claim made by proponents to attain the true democracy. While the proponents argue that the local communities must be responsible for generating resources for their services, the author counters it by stating that thickly populated areas can surely do it, thinly populated areas would languish as they would still be dependent on the subsidies from the Federal government. Thus, the claim of attaining the true democracy is far from reality.

So, BF2 is a claim made by the author that goes against that of the proponents.

Thus, BF1 (claim by the proponents) is countered by BF2 (claim by the author).

Answer: A