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Introduction to Policy Debate

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This section follows the affirmative answers section because until you understand how to answer a disadvantage on the affirmative, you will not be able to effectively debate it on the negative.

There are a number of important things you need to do when extending a disadvantage:

 Have an overview.  You should prepare a written out overview that explains the basic thesis of your disadvantage, with a particular focus on the links and impacts.  You-should make arguments related to the following in your overview:

Time-frame. You should come up with reasons that the disadvantage will happen before the affirmative case advantages.

Probability. You should some up with reasons why the disadvantage is more likely to happen than the affirmative advantage. You should focus on the relative strengths of your links and internal links relative to the affirmative’s advantage internal links and solvency when making probability arguments.

Impact. You should argue that the disadvantage impact is greater than the affirmative’s advantage impact. It is also useful to read some evidence that says that your disadvantage impact causes their case impact.  For example, if the affirmative case you are debating has a racism advantage, you could argue that an economic decline (if you are arguing the spending disadvantage) causes racism.  For this reason, it is good to have a variety of different impacts to your disadvantage.

Have a large list of links.  It is always good to read a large list of links to the disadvantage in the negative block. First, it enhances the credibility of the disadvantage.  If the judge thinks the disadvantage is credible, he or she will see it as being probable.  Probability is critical to risk assessment.  Second, if the affirmative has any link turns, especially specific ones that you don’t really know how to answer, reading a large list of links will help demonstrate that there is a net link to the disadvantage.

Despite these benefits, one note of caution is important – if you read many links, it is easier for the 2AR to non-unique one of the links.  If you are having trouble with the link, read more links, but if the 2AC concedes the link, simply point this out rather than providing more opportunities for the affirmative to non-unique the link.

 Make a strong uniqueness defense.  Unless the affirmative does not contest it at all, you should read a lot of evidence to defend the uniqueness to your disadvantage.  If you read a lot of uniqueness evidence then it will be very difficult for the 1AR to go for a straight-link turn strategy or to win a link turn of value by the end of the debate simply because their turns will not be unique (There is no value to saving money if we don’t have a financial shortfall now).  Generally, affirmative teams will be more prepared than negatives to debate the specifics of the link/link turn debate, but negatives can neutralize that by making a strong uniqueness defense.  Affirmative teams are less likely to be prepared to debate the uniqueness of a specific disadvantage.

Focus on a couple specific disadvantages.  Do not try to write every disadvantage you have heard of. Instead, develop a couple strong generic disadvantages that link to many different affirmative cases on the topic.  If you focus on one or two arguments, you will come to learn these generic arguments well.  If you know them well you will be able to explain them well to judges, be able to do excellent impact analysis, and come up with your own reasons that a given disadvantage links.  You will also be able to quickly come up with answers to your own arguments.

To develop a couple of specific disadvantages, you need to do a few things:


            Prepare link blocks. Think of every case you know of and write some briefs that have comprehensive explanations of the various links from the affirmative’s plan to the disadvantage. Come up with as many links as possible.

            Research uniqueness. This is something that you can do both at home and at a the tournament.  You should be sure to carry 15-20 strong uniqueness cards for each of your main disadvantages to the tournament

            Be able to switch.  You need to be able to win the uniqueness to your disadvantages at tournaments.   Sometimes the world of current events will overtake you and make it impossible for you to win uniqueness to a particular disadvantage at a given tournament. When this happens, you need to be realistic – prepare to extend another disadvantage!  This is why you need to be prepared to run more than one disadvantage.

            Have relatively different disadvantages. You do not want to be prepared to debate two very similar disadvantages (such as a spending and economy) disadvantage.  If both disadvantages are very similar, 2ACs will be able to save time making similar arguments and you may end up in trouble on uniqueness to both disadvantages.

Prepare before the debate starts.  Before the debate starts, stay focused.   There are two things that you need to do before the debate.  First, decide which of your two primary disadvantages you are likely to go for.  Things to consider: how good is the team you are debating at debating each one, which is more likely to outweigh the case, which is more likely to have an impact that will trigger the affirmative’s case harms.  Also, consider the judge – does the judge have an opinion on either.

Second, write an overview that is specific to the affirmative, put together a long list of links to read in the negative block, and write out some of the impact analysis that is specific that will go in your 2NC/1NR overview that is relatively specific to the affirmative case that you are debating.

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