Glossary of policy debate terms
This is a glossary of policy debate terms.
Affirmative
In policy debate, the Affirmative is the team that affirms the resolution and seeks to uphold it by developing, proposing, and advocating for a policy plan that satisfies the resolution. By affirming the resolution, the Affirmative incurs the burden of proof, which must be met if the Affirmative's policy plan is to be successful.The Negative side, in contrast, is the team that negates the affirmation. More specifically, the Negative refutes the policy plan that is presented by the Affirmative.
The Affirmative team has the advantage of speaking both first and last, but it lacks the benefit of back-to-back speeches afforded to the Negative team in the 13-minute block of time known as the "Negative block".
Agent counterplan
In policy debate, an agent counterplan is a counterplan that proposes to do affirmative's plan with another agent. For example, if the affirmative plan were: "The USFG should send troops to Liberia" an agent counterplan would be "France should send troops to Liberia." This would solve the original proposal with a net benefit the plan does not have, giving the judge a reason to vote for the team reading it rather than the team with the original proposal. Like most mainstream argument forms in policy debate, they are presumed to be legitimate, though it is possible for the affirmative to defeat them on the grounds that they are illegitimate by arguing that they are unfair, uneducational, or illogical. Because they make it possible for the negative to win without refuting most of the claims of the affirmative case, they are a key component in many negative strategies.Most affirmatives try to avoid domestic USFG agent counterplans by not specifying their agent beyond the United States federal government in their plan text. On international topics, international agent counterplans cannot be similarly avoided, although many consider them object fiat or otherwise theoretically suspect.
Some debate theorists have argued the kind of fiat involved with these counterplans is inconsistent with the logic of decision making.
Ballot Vote
In debate, judges consider or score the debate, and ultimately vote for the winner of the debate round on a ballot. The purpose of the ballot is what the judge's vote stands for or is intended to affirm. For example, a team might say "the role of the ballot is to vote for whoever saves more lives in third world countries". The opposing team might say "role is irrelevant and the debate rewards the best arguments, not the simulations". The difference between a vote and a role is not about pretending how to save lives in third world countries, which academic debate purports to do, but not as if one is in a hero role, but arguing why to save lives in third world countries because that is normatively feasible and desirable, straightforwardly.The ballot is also where judges can comment that certain speakers excelled at rhetoric or oratory or argumentation or teamwork or knows the material with great depth and breadth. Those debaters in formal, organized debate, get speaker awards based on judges' opinions of the speakers' performances.
Constructive speech
In policy debate, constructive speeches are the first four speeches of a debate round. Constructive speeches are each followed by a 3-minute cross-examination period.In high school, constructive speeches are 8 minutes long; in college, they are 9 minutes.
In general, constructive arguments are the only time that a team can make new arguments. The last four speeches of the debate are reserved for refutations of arguments already made.
In current policy debate, the "first affirmative constructive" is used to present the "plan". Whether all new "off-case arguments" must be presented in the "first negative constructive" is a point of contention.
Critical Flaw
In policy debate, a critical flaw refers to when the Affirmative team's plan text includes the wrong bill or a bill from a previous legislature.For example, a team may want to pass Senate Bill 361, "A bill to establish a 90-day limit to file a petition for judicial review of a permit, license, or approval for a highway or public transportation project, and for other purposes." from the 117th Congress. However, if the date the round is taking place happens during the 118th Congress, Senate Bill 361, "Pistol Brace Protection Act" will be passed instead due to the fact that the mandate doesn't specify which Congress the Affirmative team is referring to.
This causes the Affirmative team to more than likely become untopical and have a plan nowhere remotely related to the intention.
Double turns
It is a classic debate mistake for an affirmative to read both link and impact turns. For example, a negative team might read a disadvantage saying that the plan will collapse the economy, and that economic collapse causes nuclear war. An affirmative would double turn the disadvantage by saying that actually, the plan would prevent the economy from collapsing, and that economic collapse is crucial to prevent nuclear war. Therefore, the affirmative is now arguing that the plan will cause nuclear war. While either of these arguments alone turns the disadvantage, the two arguments together double-turn. The negative can grant these two arguments, and the affirmative is stuck arguing that the plan would cause nuclear war.Drop
In policy debate, a drop refers to an argument which was not answered by the opposing team. Normally, a "dropped" or conceded argument is considered unrefuted for the purposes of evaluating a debate."Silence is compliance." Debaters tend to use this as a general rule while evaluating a debate round. If a team says nothing against an argument, then because 'silence is compliance', they must agree to whatever the argument was.
An argument is normally considered dropped if it is not answered in the speech in which the opposing team has the first opportunity to answer it. Generally, in the first affirmative rebuttal, the speaker is required to answer all arguments made so far by the negative team. This is because if the affirmative chooses to respond to the arguments in the second affirmative rebuttal, it reaffirms affirmative ground and strength because the affirmative gets the last speech, leaving the negative with no way to refute any argument made.
Many debaters refer to dropped arguments as "conceded," "unanswered," or "unrefuted" or "stands in good stead".
Some judges will not evaluate some arguments, even when they are dropped, such as arguments labeled "voting issues" but which are unsupported by warrants. For example, "the sky is blue, vote affirmative" is an argument that most judges would believe does not need to be answered.
Debaters sometimes use the "dropped egg" argument to refer to arguments dropped by the opposing team, stating that "A dropped argument is like a dropped egg. Once an egg is dropped, it cannot be fixed again. Therefore, you should disregard their argument..." etc. This argument is optimal for lay, or parent, judges who need a reference to real life to understand the sophisticated arguments in a policy debate round.Fiat is a theoretical, "throwaway assumption" and convention that "represents a willing suspension of disbelief which allows us to pretend that the plan advocated by the affirmative team is already in action." Derived from the word should in the resolution, it means that the crux of the resolution is debated, rather than the political feasibility of enactment of a given plan, thus allowing an affirmative team to proceed with proposing a plan. An example: a student at a high school debate argues that increases in United States support of United Nations peacekeeping may help to render the United States more multilateral. Such an increase is very unlikely to occur from the debate judge voting for the Affirmative, but fiat allows the student to side-step this practicality, and argue on the substance of the idea at the level of an ideal, as if it could be immediately enacted.
Because of the presumption of fiat, enactment is considered the same as enforcement, which is quite different from merely ratification or adoption of the resolution. Presumption grants that the agency, such as Congress, are sincere and diligent civil servants who do not quibble over the plan as any part of their regular duties, the presumption of "perfect obedience for the plan's enactment". However, in "pure" policy debate without an Affirmative plan, fiat is also ignored yet does not assume but has to account for the moral agency of the resolution.
There are different theories regarding presumption of fiat:
"Normal means" – going through the same political process comparable with normal legislative processes. There is no overarching, accepted definition of the legislative pathways which constitute "normal means," but clarification about what an affirmative team regards as "normal means" can be obtained as part of cross-examination by the negative team.
"Infinite" or "durable fiat" – the degree to which an ideal, or "fiated", action is considered feasible. In many policy debates, debaters argue about the reversibility "fiated" actions. For example, in a debate about whether the United States Federal Government should implement new regulations to reduce climate change, a Negative team might argue that regulations would be repealed if the Republican Party gained control of the Presidency or Congress. Various interpretations of fiats have been constructed in order to promote more realistic political punditry that is different from policy debate.
"Intrinsic means" – are the same means as the status quo without having to justify discovery or extraordinary support of those means. For example, if the plan's agency is C.I.A., there is no need to go into a lengthy discussion about classification methods and clearances. Significance can be argued that capturing the status quo's intrinsic means gives a Solvency boost without the destabilization that would result in other harms or the same status quo harms. Intrinsic means grants justification of status quo capabilities but none of its inherency vis-a-vis the resolution.
Fiat is not taken for granted but is granted to end political discourse, palace intrigue, vote-getting in election politicking, identity politicking, and promote academic debate on policy matters while disregarding the exact partisan composition needed to implement a plan. For example, both Affirmative and Negative teams can cite political double-whammies or backlash as disadvantages: if United States troops are sent to a foreign country, the majority political party that was pro-deployment will not be re-elected and cannot sustain their military objectives, the quagmire argument. It does not matter who is in power and their party affiliation, it matters that whosoever is in power already can benefit from the plan, if that is the argument. Usually, Affirmative plans are not about re-electing officials but are honed toward nonelected groups and other countries who are beneficiaries of the plan.
In policy debate, fiating the plan is almost always granted without argument, to help debaters and judges evaluate the merits of a plan as though the plan happens. From there, debate ensues, and it is valid to argue that the Affirmative plan is more expensive in dollars than the Negative counterplan, for example, where fiat is granted to both sides. Fiat almost always does not have to be debated in policy debate but should be taught by coaches and understood by debaters for what they are doing in the activity of academic policy debate.
Note that these types of arguments about fiat, that incorrectly assumes fiat is a process argument, are rarely distinguishable from counter-resolutions and nontopicality and are therefore frowned upon by judges:
- Post-fiat arguments attempt to show that the consequences of passing and enacting the affirmative plan would be in some way worse than the harms described by the affirmative. Such arguments are labelled post-fiat because they require the supposition of a world where the plan is passed and implemented. This sort of argument is no different from straightforward Negative Solvency, the tactic that refutes the Aff plan Solvency.
- Pre-fiat arguments are arguments that relate to in-round issues. Examples include: nontopicality arguments and language [|kritiks]. The team making a pre-fiat argument will argue that the pre-fiat argument should be evaluated before any other argument in the round, or at least is an important major plank that has to be supported throughout the round. This is also what makes Topicality a "voter" issue, as exploitation are pre-fiat. However, it is incorrect in academic policy debate, to argue Topicality is related to fiat, which it is not. It is credible, however, to make the realignment requirement an argument, that status quo corruption working against plan feasibility is unique to the resolution or plan not addressed by the Harms plank. For example, in a resolution calling for "should substantially reduce tax rates", the Affirmative can be topical by ousting the mafia from all Affirmative plans linked from the resolution. Rather than arguing fiat, the Negative can give direct clash by arguing advantage-turn into disadvantage against Affirmative Solvency, by presenting evidence that the lackluster Federal Bureau of Investigation is more costly to everyone's tax rate already and will never be able to thoroughly oust the mafia.