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lahoosaher
Joined: 16 Jan 2009
Last visit: 20 Apr 2018
Posts: 236
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Concentration: Technology, Marketing
Schools: Ross '16 (D) Tepper '16 (D) McCombs '16 (D) ISB '15 (D) Marshall '16 (WL) McDonough '16 (WL) Goizueta '16 (WL) Kelley '16 (D) Kenan-Flagler '16 (D) Rotman '16 (S)
GMAT 1: 700 Q50 V34
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WE:Sales (Telecommunications)
Schools: Ross '16 (D) Tepper '16 (D) McCombs '16 (D) ISB '15 (D) Marshall '16 (WL) McDonough '16 (WL) Goizueta '16 (WL) Kelley '16 (D) Kenan-Flagler '16 (D) Rotman '16 (S)
GMAT 1: 700 Q50 V34
Posts: 236
Updated on: 25 Jul 2024, 09:42
Originally posted by lahoosaher on 09 Sep 2009, 04:40.
Last edited by Bunuel on 25 Jul 2024, 09:42, edited 8 times in total.
Last edited by Bunuel on 25 Jul 2024, 09:42, edited 8 times in total.
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E
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
95%
(hard)
Question Stats:
27% (02:50) correct
73%
(02:55)
wrong
based on 3845
sessions
History
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Time
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Not Attempted Yet
Whenever a major political scandal erupts before an election and voters blame the scandal on all parties about equally, virtually all incumbents, from whatever party, seeking reelection are returned to office. However, when voters blame such a scandal on only one party, incumbents from that party are likely to be defeated by challengers from other parties. The proportion of incumbents who seek reelection is high and remarkably constant from election to election.
If the voters’ reactions are guided by a principle, which one of the following principles would best account for the contrast in reactions described above?
(A) Whenever one incumbent is responsible for one major political scandal and another incumbent is responsible for another, the consequences for the two incumbents should be the same.
(B) When a major political scandal is blamed on incumbents from all parties, that judgment is more accurate than any judgment that incumbents from only on party are to blame.
(C) Incumbents who are rightly blamed for a major political scandal should not seek reelection, but if they do, they should not be returned to office.
(D) Major political scandals can practically always be blamed on incumbents, but whether those incumbents should be voted out of office depends on who their challengers are.
(E) When major political scandals are less the responsibility of individual incumbents than of the parties to which they belong, whatever party was responsible must be penalized when possible.
If the voters’ reactions are guided by a principle, which one of the following principles would best account for the contrast in reactions described above?
(A) Whenever one incumbent is responsible for one major political scandal and another incumbent is responsible for another, the consequences for the two incumbents should be the same.
(B) When a major political scandal is blamed on incumbents from all parties, that judgment is more accurate than any judgment that incumbents from only on party are to blame.
(C) Incumbents who are rightly blamed for a major political scandal should not seek reelection, but if they do, they should not be returned to office.
(D) Major political scandals can practically always be blamed on incumbents, but whether those incumbents should be voted out of office depends on who their challengers are.
(E) When major political scandals are less the responsibility of individual incumbents than of the parties to which they belong, whatever party was responsible must be penalized when possible.
Check GMATNinja's explanation HERE
Here is the OE from Kaplan:
The roster of facts is tough to get through: Handle with care, and keep paraphrasing. When voters blame a scandal equally on all parties, almost all incumbents win reelection. But when a scandal is blamed on a single party, incumbents from that party tend to lose. (E)’s principle would explain such behavior. According to (E), if Party X is responsible for a scandal, voters should try to punish Party X by voting out its incumbents; however, if all the parties are responsible, there’s not much voters can do—whoever they vote for would be a member of one of the offending parties, so they might as well vote for the incumbents. Thus (E) accounts for the contrast in voter reactions.
(A) deals with what should happen to individual incumbents who are responsible for scandals, but the stimulus just describes how voters treat parties or incumbents as members of their parties.
(B) makes a judgment about the likely accuracy of the judgments of blame, but nothing of the kind is mentioned in the passage.
(C) makes the mistake of concentrating on individuals, instead of parties. Moreover, (C) runs contrary to the passage: According to (C), in cases where all parties are blamed for a scandal, all incumbents should be turned out.
(D) The passage doesn’t imply that voters evaluate the challengers. On the contrary, voters are depicted as making choices depending on what they believe about the incumbents’ parties.
Here is the OE from Kaplan:
The roster of facts is tough to get through: Handle with care, and keep paraphrasing. When voters blame a scandal equally on all parties, almost all incumbents win reelection. But when a scandal is blamed on a single party, incumbents from that party tend to lose. (E)’s principle would explain such behavior. According to (E), if Party X is responsible for a scandal, voters should try to punish Party X by voting out its incumbents; however, if all the parties are responsible, there’s not much voters can do—whoever they vote for would be a member of one of the offending parties, so they might as well vote for the incumbents. Thus (E) accounts for the contrast in voter reactions.
(A) deals with what should happen to individual incumbents who are responsible for scandals, but the stimulus just describes how voters treat parties or incumbents as members of their parties.
(B) makes a judgment about the likely accuracy of the judgments of blame, but nothing of the kind is mentioned in the passage.
(C) makes the mistake of concentrating on individuals, instead of parties. Moreover, (C) runs contrary to the passage: According to (C), in cases where all parties are blamed for a scandal, all incumbents should be turned out.
(D) The passage doesn’t imply that voters evaluate the challengers. On the contrary, voters are depicted as making choices depending on what they believe about the incumbents’ parties.
- The question stem asks for a principle that would account for voter actions. The last sentence has nothing to do with voter’s actions, so it is essentially filler used to create wrong answer choices.
- The more complex a stimulus, the more important it is to paraphrase carefully. Don’t get bogged down in the author’s verbiage; instead, replace it with your own everyday language and images.
13 May 2017, 14:35
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Let's say that the mayor of a town always belongs to one of three political parties: X, Y, or Z. The town holds an election every year, voting either to keep the incumbent mayor (if that mayor runs for reelection) or to elect a new mayor.
Now on to the question stem:
Quote:
Whenever a major political scandal erupts before an election and voters blame the scandal on all parties about equally, virtually all incumbents, from whatever party, seeking reelection are returned to office.
(Scenario 1): According to this statement, if a major political scandal erupts before one of the annual elections and voters blame the scandal on all three parties about equally, then the incumbent mayor, if seeking reelection, will almost certainly win the election, regardless of the mayor's political party affiliation. In other words, even though the incumbent belongs to a party that is equally blamed for the scandal, the incumbent and his/her party do not suffer negative political consequences.Quote:
However, when voters blame such a scandal on only one party, incumbents from that party are likely to be defeated by challengers from other parties.
(Scenario 2): If the current mayor belongs to Party X, and voters blame the scandal on Party X, the current mayor, if seeking reelection, is likely to be defeated by a challenger from Party Y or Party Z. In other words, when the incumbent's party is the ONLY party blamed, the incumbent and his/her party DO suffer negative political consequences.Now on to the question stem:
Quote:
If the voters’ reactions are guided by a principle, which one of the following principles would best account for the contrast in reactions described above?
The "voters' reactions" are described in the first two sentences: scenario 1) when voters blame a pre-election scandal on all parties equally, the incumbent usually wins, and scenario 2) when voters blame a pre-election scandal on the party of the incumbent, the incumbent usually loses. If we are told that those reactions are guided by a principle, which principle would best account for the contrast in those reactions?Quote:
(A) Whenever one incumbent is responsible for one major political scandal and another incumbent is responsible for another, the consequences for the two incumbents should be the same.
The argument in the passage does not discuss how the voters would react if one incumbent were responsible for one major scandal and another incumbent were responsible for another. Choice (A) can be eliminated.Quote:
(B) When a major political scandal is blamed on incumbents from all parties, that judgment is more accurate than any judgment that incumbents from only on party are to blame.
We are looking for a principle that accounts for the contrast in the voters' reactions (scenario 1 vs scenario 2), and we don't care whether the judgment on which one reaction is based is more accurate than the judgment on which the other is based. Choice (B) can be eliminated.Quote:
(C) Incumbents who are rightly blamed for a major political scandal should not seek reelection, but if they do, they should not be returned to office.
First, the passage does not consider whether incumbents blamed for a major political scandal should or should not seek reelection. Second, choice (C) only explains the voters' reaction in scenario 2 and does NOT explain the contrast in those reactions. Choice (C) can be eliminated.Quote:
(D) Major political scandals can practically always be blamed on incumbents, but whether those incumbents should be voted out of office depends on who their challengers are.
This statement does not align with the information in the passage. According to the passage, if incumbents (and hence their parties) are blamed for a pre-election scandal, those incumbents will most likely lose the election, regardless of "who their challengers are." Choice (D) can be eliminated.Quote:
(E) When major political scandals are less the responsibility of individual incumbents than of the parties to which they belong, whatever party was responsible must be penalized when possible.
First, apply this principle to scenario 2 (the incumbent's party--Party X, for example--receives all of the blame): in that case, Party X can easily be penalized by voting for someone in Party Y or Party Z. Now, consider scenario 1 (for example, the incumbent belongs to Party X but Parties X, Y, and Z all receive equal blame): if we follow the principle in statement (E), we should penalize ALL parties. If we vote for someone in Party Y or Z, one of those parties is rewarded while party X is penalized. There is no way to penalize all parties equally since a member of one of the parties has to win. In that case, the voters might just stick with the default option (the incumbent). Thus, choice (E) is the best choice. 
21 May 2012, 06:31
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gmatfighter12
I picked A and could not quite understand why it was E. Can anyone explain, please
'Parts of the Whole' method is used to test on many different question types. If you spot it fast enough, the answers are very straightforward. The spotting here is that an incumbent is member (part) of a party (whole). If you've done this, just ask yourself these 2 questions: If a certain Part has an attribute, is it necessary that the Whole has it?
If the Whole has a quality, is it necessary that each part has it?
Since the stimulus is a principle q, voters seem to adhere to q1 above and hence answer E.
You can use sports as a 'Parts of the Whole' analogy to see this: Phillies is the best team in the MLB. Therefore all its pitchers are the best pitchers in MLB. Is that logically right?
