Question: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Petitioning is an expeditious democratic tradition, used frequently in prior centuries, by which citizens can bring issues directly to governments. As expressions of collective voice, they support procedural democracy by shaping agendas. They can also recruit citizens to causes, give voice to the voteless, and apply the discipline of rhetorical argument that clarifies a point of view. By contrast, elections are limited in several respects: they involve only a few candidates, and thus fall far short of a representative democracy. Further, voters’ choices are not specific to particular policies or laws, and elections are episodic, whereas the voice of the people needs to be heard and integrated constantly into democratic government.
Option (a): Although passage discusses about positive aspects of petitioning, it does not mentions that it is an ideal form of democracy.
Option (b): The passage says that petitioning gives voice to people and elections have limitations, but it does not mention that we should rely more on petitioning that elections.
Option (c): The passage does not suggest that citizens are becoming less inclined to petitioning. In fact, the passage does not address the prevalence of petitioning in contemporary times at all.
Option (d) captures the essence of the passage.
Hence, option (d).