October 2013 LSAT Section 1 Question 23

Columnist: Although most people favor the bill and the bill does not violate anyone's basic human rights, it will not...

shafieiava on April 22, 2020

Answer choices B and E

Can someone explain the difference between answer choices B and E? It seems to me they are saying the same thing, just one in a positive manner and the other negative. Can someone explain the differences between the two answer choices and what makes the correct one right? Thanks in advance.

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Annie on April 22, 2020

Hi @shafieiava,

This is a tricky question and it comes down to the specificity in the answer choices.

Answer (B) tells us that the principle is essentially "in a well functioning democracy, bills favored by most people but opposed by influential people, will become law." However, the Columnist told us "A bill that doesn't violate human rights and is favored by most people will not be passed because it's not favored by influential people, thus it's not a democracy." The difference here is the "violate human rights part." That is key to the Columnist's argument and is left out of Answer B, making it incorrect.

Answer (E) on the other hand includes the important caveat that the bill not violate anyone's human rights. So, while you were correct that these answers are very similar, E has the extra information which makes it match the Columnist's argument