lsat－4－1－21

21. 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.

这题想不明白！

the question is: if the voters follow which principle , such situation would happen:

1) if voters put blame on both parties, the reeclection of the incumbents are not affected;however,

2) if the voters blame on only one party, the incumbent of that party probably will not get reelected

the answer is E:

the principle in E explains why 2) could happen: iif a particular party is blamed for a scandal, the incumbent of that part will not get enough voters' support(be penalized)

谢谢chelseayang 。还有一事不明seeking reelection are returned to office如何理解，就是“回到程序的开始，也就是回到同一起跑线”的意思吗？

My understanding is: the sentence simply mean s that , people (incumbents) who seek reelection  finally get reelected.

"are returned to office" probably means "they are returned to office by voters"

return to office = return to power

另：注意本题中的政党与在任者的区别。

题目说的是政党有问题的情况。答案说要有人付出代价。

因此，很容易理解1）各政党都有问题，在任者继任；2）某政党有问题，属于该政党的在任者被打败。