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 Space Infrastructure Military Infrastructure Ports High Speed Rail Highways 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. 1AC: Aff introduces advantages, solvency, inherency, and the plan text 1NC: Neg introduces off-case arguments and answers the aff advantages 2AC: Responds to the 1NC arguments, starts impact calculus 2NC/1NR: Responds to 2AC arugments, starts impact calculus 1AR: Extends 2AC arguments, answers block argument, more impact calc 2NR: Neg picks strongest arguments 2AR: 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