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Introduction to Policy Debate

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The basic job of the negative is to defeat the affirmative by arguing that we should not support change or that we should support a different proposal than the one offered by the affirmative.

The negative can defeat the affirmative in a variety of ways.

Topicality argument(s). Negative teams can prove that affirmative teams are “non-topical” by presenting a topicality argument that demonstrates that the affirmative does not fit within the constraints of the resolution. Affirmatives that propose giving food aid to Africa on a topic that deals with increasing participation in a specific list of service programs obviously have nothing to do with the resolution and a team is unlikely to take such a radical approach. What is more likely, however, is for affirmatives to push the bounds of the topic by only increasing the number of persons serving, say, by 10 people. Negatives can argue that this type of affirmative does not support a “substantial” increase. As discussed in the topicality chapter, there are always a number of topicality arguments at-play.

Disadvantage(s). The negative can present disadvantages. A disadvantage is a negative argument that proves that the affirmative plan is undesirable. It is really one of the simplest ideas in debate – it is an argument about a negative consequence that will result from adopting the affirmative’s plan.

It is important to note that any given disadvantage alone is not necessarily a reason to vote negative.. Negatives must argue that the disadvantage proves that the affirmative’s plan is net-undesirable – that the costs outweigh the benefits. To continue with the example above, the negative would need to prove that it is better to buy the pair of shorts with the money than not the shirt.

Critiques/Kritik(s). It is difficult to say exactly what a kritik is. Kritiks have taken many forms in debate, and the popularity of many has come and gone. Generally, a kritik is a philosophical objection to some element of the other team’s arguments. Initially, critiques were only advanced by negative, but now critiques are also commonly advanced by the affirmative.

Counterplan(s). A counterplan is an alternative plan to the affirmative plan that is advanced by the negative. The most essential defining element of a counterplan is that it is competitive – the negative must prove that the counterplan is better than the affirmative plan or a combination of the plan and all or part of the counterplan.

Topicality arguments, disadvantages, counterplans, and critiques are “off-case” arguments and are presented first in the 1NC. Negatives can present any number or combination of each, though the legitimacy of suggesting multiple counterplans is something that is hotly contested. Since there are no rules in debate, you will need to be prepared to defend it if your strategy includes multiple counterplans.

After presenting off-case positions, the 1NC then will proceed to attack the 1AC itself, making as many arguments as possible against the inherency, harms, significance, and solvency. The 1NC should be prepared to answer basic questions from the 1AC.

After the 2AC responds to the negative arguments, the negative must be prepared to defend them in the two speeches that follow – the 2NC and the 1NR. You can think of both of the speeches as one giant rebuttal where both debaters answer the 2AC arguments.

These two speeches are usually the hardest for beginning debaters to give because they require them to be able to respond point by point to specific 2AC arguments. In your first few debates, do the best you can to answer each of the 2AC arguments.

In the 2NR the negative needs highlight their major arguments and explain why, on the whole, the affirmative’s plan is a bad idea. The negative does not need to win every argument that they advance in the debate, but they do need to win enough arguments to prove that the affirmative’s plan is net-undesirable.

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