counter plan lecture

8/10/2019 Counter Plan Lecture

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Counter Plan Lecture

10/9/13NYU Policy Debate


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Thought Experiment

Counter Plans (CP) exist because the negativehas the right to counter the Affirmative casewith a competing option.

Must be Mutually Exclusive with the plan Example of how it can be abusive

Do the plan and also give out subsidized food to

solve world hunger Do the plan but save a penny


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Competition

A fair way in which the CP is mutually exclusivewith the plan

The way a CP competes is through having a Net

Benefit A Net Benefit is a bonus that the counter plan solves

for that the plan cannot.

A Net Benefit is also a reason why doing the plan and

CP together would be worse then just doing the CP Ex: A Politics Disadvantage, Another Disadvantage,

Impact Turns


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Functional Competition

A Counterplan that competes with the plan on

a mechanism basis.


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Textual Competition

A Counterplan that competes because of the

plan text and CP text are different

A word PIK would be an example of textual

competition


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Types of CPs

Plan Inclusive (PICs): Do some or all parts of theaffirmative

Delay: Delay the plan or do it contingent on afuture event

Consult: Ask another actor if it is ok to do theplan

Exclusionary: Do a specific part of the plan andclaim Net Benefits of parts excluded

Agent: Have another actor do the plan

Plan Exclusive: Do no part of the plan


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Question #1

Plan: Remove Drones

1NC: Executive Order CP, Terrorism DA(removing Drones lets the terrorist win),

Presidential Powers DA, Global WarmingImpact Defense, Proliferation Good ImpactTurns

Executive Order Counterplan is have thepresident do the plan by himself

What are the possible Net Benefits to CP?


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Question #2

Plan: Remove Drones

Advantages: Hegemony, Proliferation and

Warming

1NC: SPS CP (solves for warming but nothing

else), Presidential Powers DA, Terrorism DA

(same as the previous question), Heg Bad

Impact turns, Prolif Bad Impact turns

What are the possible Net Benefits to the CP?


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Question #3

Textual or Functional Competition

1AC Plan Text: The USFG should ban the use of

drones for targeted killing

CP 1: The USFG should ban the use of drones for

assassinations

CP 2: The USFG


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SPOT

Solvency

Perm

Offense Theory


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Permutations

A permutation (perm) is a test of competition

that questions whether the Counterplan and

the plan are mutually exclusive.

You should always make a perm on the

Counterplan and should always answer it

when you read a counterplan. Failure to do so

typically means you will lose.


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The major types of Perms

Perm do both

Perm do the CP

Perm do plan and non-mutually exclusiveparts of the CP


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Perm do both

This perm says that we should enact both the

CP and Plan at the same time.

This perm is functionally saying that there is

no reason the plan and CP cannot happen at

the same time (No net benefit).

This is always a perm that you should be

making because it can almost never have

theory read against it


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Perm do the CP

This perm is basically saying that there is no legitimatereason the CP and Plan are any different.

This perm is usually used against CPs that are insanelyabusive and steal the majority of the plan

Typically CPs that steal your Aff do so because theyover clarify something. You should argue, whenmaking this perm, that their clarification of what theirCP does is the same clarification as what your plan

does

This can also be used against word PIKs


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Perm do the plan and non-mutually

exclusive parts of the CP

This perm is also very usefully because it allowsyou to win even though you may not be able todo the entire CP in the world of the plan passing

With this perm you argue that we can do certainparts of the CP and the entire plan which is themost beneficial outcome.

Ex: CP Text: Dont do the plan and feed starvingchildren Aff says: PDPNME-No reason we cant also feed the

starving children and our entire case proves that notdoing the plan is bad


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Perm Theory

Just like how CPs can be abusive, the types of

perms you make are also abusive. We can all

agree that CPs are probably a good thing in

debate. If the affirmative can do tricky thingswith their perms, CPs may never win that they

are competitive.

There are two ways a Perm can be abusive:Severance and Intrinsicness


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Severance

A perm is severance when it spikes out of part ofthe 1AC

Image if the affirmative could stop advocatingpart of their 1AC just because you read anargument against it.

Ex: CP text: Dont do the plan If the affirmative stood up and said perm do the cp, it

would mean they are no longer advocating their plan

which is unfair


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Intrinsicness

When you add something to your perm text thatwasnt in the CP or plan text

Ex: CP Text: Have the president do the planthrough an executive order (The net benefits arepremised on how Xos make Obama look strong) Perm do the plan and have Obama issue an XO on

something else.

Though this solves for the Net Benefits of the CP, it is

totally illegit because it allows the affirmative to addany additional action to solve the Net Benefits(remember CP needs Net Benefits or it is illegit)


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CP Status Theory

A status of a CP is simply a statement by the

negative on whether or not they have a right to

stop advocating (kick out of) for it as the round

continues DAs, Ts and case arguments can be kicked out of

and no one cares

Because CPs are harder to answer, because theyhave the potential to steal the entire aff, people

care more when teams kick out of CPs


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The Three Statuses of the CP

Conditional: Sometimes phrased as the

status quo is always an option or Condo

Dispositional

Unconditional


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Unconditional

This is pretty simple: They are saying that we

are not allowed to stop advocating for the CP

In other words: This is our winning and only

strategy

Very rarely do you see a CP run unconditionally


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Conditional

This says that we are allowed to stop advocating for the CPwhenever we want.

This is the most traditional way of reading a CP and if youare unsure in round, unless told by a coach, you shouldread all CPs conditionally.

Conditionality used to be a bad word in debate and if youread a CP this way you would usually lose because the affwould say you are being unfair. However, over the past 10years debate has become very tolerant of conditionalityand now it is very hard to win that conditionality is bad.With that being said, most teams still read conditionalitybad and if you dont answer it you automatically lose.


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Dispositional

This status actually means that you have to agree withthe negative on the terms of when you are allowed tokick it. Typically, almost exclusively, it is assumed tomean that we are allowed to stop advocating for the

CP as soon as it is straight turned (there is only offensearguments on the CP flow)

A good rule to follow is that if someone says the CP isdispositional, you ask what do you mean by this. It

doesnt make you sound silly. The judge will probablylike it because it will clear up any confusion right fromthe get go.

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