Introduction to Policy Debate Casey Parsons What is

Introduction to Policy Debate Casey Parsons

What is Policy Debate? • Policy debate is a comparison of two worlds • World one is the aff, where the resolution is a true statement and the plan happens • World two is the neg, where the resolution is a false statement and the plan doesn’t happen – this is called the status quo • We’re trying to determine which world we’d rather live in

Resolved • PF and LD evaluate whether or not the resolution is a true or false statement • Policy debate is a question of action – what policy action should the United States take? • Policy resolutions always start with “The United States Federal Government should…” so the agent of action is always the USFG

Plans • The aff doesn’t just stand up and say the resolution is true though – they advocate a plan text, which is like a subset of the resolution • The plan text has to “satisfy” the resolution • For example, if the resolution was “Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase it’s transportation infrastructure investment in the United States” an example of a plan that satisfies the resolution would be the building of a new highway • We call this being topical – highways are an example of transportation infrastructure, so if the USFG builds a new highway then it’s increasing it’s transportation infrastructure investment in the United States • The aff gets fiat – we assume that the plan makes it through Congress

Topicality • The plan that the aff defends must be topical – it falls under the resolution • If the plan doesn’t fall under the resolution, it’s not topical which means the aff loses because they didn’t prove the resolution to be true • There are lots of topical affs Resolved : The USFG should substantially increase its transportation infrastructure investment in the United States Ports Space Infrastructure Highways Military Infrastructure High Speed Rail Mass Transit

Advantages • What would some advantages of building a new highway system be? • Examples include: • Better trade efficiency • Reduced car accidents due to highway modernization • Stimulating the economy • These are all reasons why the world of the aff is preferable to the status quo

Disadvantages • What would some disadvantages to the highways aff be? • Examples include: • It’s politically unpopular • It’s expensive • It requires environmental destruction • These are all reasons why the world of the aff is a bad idea, and why the world of the neg (or the status quo) where the highway doesn’t get built would be preferable

Speeches This won’t make much sense right now – that’s okay, this is just a general overview of what happens in the round. We’ll talk about what all of this means later, but be sure to have a copy of this information written down for reference. 1 AC: Aff introduces advantages, solvency, inherency, and the plan text 1 NC: Neg introduces off-case arguments and answers the aff advantages 2 AC: Responds to the 1 NC arguments, starts impact calculus 2 NC/1 NR: Responds to 2 AC arugments, starts impact calculus 1 AR: Extends 2 AC arguments, answers block argument, more impact calc 2 NR: Neg picks strongest arguments 2 AR: Aff picks strongest arguments

So who wins? • Whomever shows that their world is preferable • If the aff wins that the world of the plan is preferable to the status quo, then the aff wins the round • If the neg wins that the status quo is preferable to the plan, then the neg wins the round