The Counterplan

1. The Counterplan by Rich Edwards Baylor University

2. What Is A Counterplan? A counterplan is a policy defended by the negative team which competes with the affirmative plan and is, on balance, more beneficial than the affirmative plan.

3. Responsibilities of the Counterplan Specificity:The counterplan text must be explicit Nontopicality:Some theorists say the counterplan must represent the NON-resolution Competitiveness:The counterplan must give the judge a reason to choose between the plan and counterplan.

4. Specificity Sample Counterplan Text:The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria will substantially increase the funding of condom distribution and non-abstinence-based HIV/AIDS education programs in sub-Saharan Africa. The U.S. will terminate its own HIV/AIDS education programs in sub-Saharan Africa.

5. Nontopicality Though some judges will continue to think this is important, MOST contemporary debate theorists say it is NOT, for the following reasons: 1. The affirmative team is asking for adoption of the PLAN not the resolution. 2. Competitiveness provides adequate protection against abuse. 3. Ground is preserved, since the affirmative team had free opportunity to choose its position first from anywhere within the resolution.

6. Standards for Competitiveness Mutual Exclusivity:It is logically impossible to do both the plan and counterplan. Net Benefits:The plan alone is more beneficial than the plan plus the counterplan Other Possibilities:Resource competition, Philosophical differences

7. Mutual Exclusivity It is logically impossible to adopt both the plan and the counterplan. Example:The affirmative calls for substantially increasing U.S. HIV/AIDS education programs; the counterplan bans all such U.S. programs. Problems with Mutual Exclusivity:Often the competitiveness is artificial because the text of the counterplan simply bans the plan: Some of this counterplan is competitive, but certainly not all of it.

8. Net Benefits Shows why it would be undesirable to combine the plan and counterplan; as a practical matter, there is some disadvantage to the plan which the counterplan does not link to. In the HIV/AIDS education example, the counterplan would uniquely avoid the “Bush Bad” disadvantage which links from the public perception that the Bush administration is doing good things in sub-Saharan Africa.

9. Permutations A permutation is an argument offered by the affirmative to demonstrate the non-competitiveness of a counterplan; it suggests a specific way that the plan and counterplan can be desirably combined. Example: Suppose an affirmative case proposes to expand Peace Corps efforts to promote HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa. The negative counterplans with expanding the Bush administration’s Volunteers for Prosperity program to send medical professionals to Africa to promote HIV/AIDS prevention. The permutation suggests recruiting medical professionals into the Peace Corps to support HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in Africa.