by Laura Damone Wed Mar 25, 2020 8:03 pm
First, sorry for the delayed response here. Amidst all the chaos of the last week, this one slipped through the cracks.
Second, I think the issue is your breakdown of the argument itself. Here's the core:
Premises: In countries with 2 qualities (no free elections, no free press), citizens are controlled by policies they had no role in creating.
When people don't understand the purpose of the restrictions placed on their behavior, they have a greater tendency to engage in civil disorder.
Conclusion: Countries without free elections and free press are prone to civil disorder.
Gap in Reasoning: Term shift. Controlled by policies they hand no role in creating and Don't understand the purpose of restrictions placed on them aren't the same.
Predict an answer that addresses this gap. As you said, D does exactly that.
If you negate C, you get this: Civil disorder can be prevented by security forces alone. That doesn't mean that it always can. It just means that there exists the possibility that civil disorder can sometimes be prevented by security forces.
Whenever I negate an absolute like "cannot," I do so by thinking about the possibility of a single counterexample.
"There cannot be a low carb bread" negates to "There might be 1 low carb bread."
Negating it this way shows why answers with absolutes are so seldom correct. The possibility of a single counterexample is almost never enough to wreck the argument!
In the case of this question, the argument is about tendencies. Countries can still be prone to civil disorder, even if it's possible that disorder could be prevented by security forces in one instance.
I'd also like to point you to the phrase "security forces alone." That to me is a big red flag. We're never talking about security forces. Why would we have to assume that they, alone, cannot do something? Whenever I see words like "only" and "alone" on the LSAT, I always look a little closer. They will frequently make or break an answer.
Hope this helps!
Laura Damone
LSAT Content & Curriculum Lead | Manhattan Prep