Normative Arguments – how and when to use them

1. Normative Arguments – how and when to use them

2. What are ‘Norms’? • A norm is a standard of social behaviour that is expected of a person or group of people. • Most norms are bad – because we tend not to like things which restrict freedom, even in such an abstract way. • Some norms are good – for example the norm that children do not play with fire, because they create good outcomes. • Some are meh, e.g. Shaking hands.

3. For whom are norms important in debating? • Minority groups and women – there are often powerful historic norms that have a role in how these people interact and are interacted with. • People who are vulnerable and easy to influence – a less intrinsically strong norm has more power here. • To a lesser extent, every person and every organisation that you can claim will respond to stimuli with a change in behaviour.

4. What creates norms? • Tradition – Roles of different people within families is a good example of this. This is often intertwined with religion and hence are backed by widely respected texts. • The state – When we create policies people tend to change their behaviour accordingly e.g. Taxes on smoking, but there doesn’t have to be a material incentive to change. • Role models – able to drastically change the way groups of people behave.

5. The Argument(s) in Brief • Policies cause changes, they lead to changes in behaviour, changing a norm to make it less/more harmful/beneficial. • A norm exists, which will affect how people behave as a result of your policy, which will make the policy have less/more of a good/bad effect. • Many debates often rest on how well you can prove people will behave in a certain way.

6. Policies that Break Down and Create Norms • Education and Exposure (don’t know?). • Affirmative Action (glass ceiling?). • Material Incentives (can’t afford?). • Creating Role Models (who says?). • Undermining things that reinforce norms (what would Jesus do?). • N.B. Jesus reinforces lots of good norms too

7. How to think about it. • There will be stakeholders in debates that you can group. That grouping you make in your mind is often in and of itself normative. • It is often good to identify how this group will stereotypically react to a policy as a result of their associated norms. • This is a sub- branch of ‘Group Analysis’ – a very important thing in debating.

8. Beating down norms arguments • Rationality – Sometimes people do not act in ‘rational self-interest’, if that’s a thing. Policies that rely on RSI to change behaviour fall here. • Conflicting norms – e.g. A reduction in the effect of a harmful norm may coincide with the worsening of a different harmful norm. • The ‘some will and some won’t’ argument – then give as many reasons as possible why the latter ‘some’ is a bigger group than the other side thinks (it tends to involve a bit of ‘look guys, how much is norms really a thing?’)

9. E.g.Norms in Feminism Debates • There are three very important ones (and more): • 1. The Action Man/Barbie Doll norm – that men do manly things and women do girly things because in their formative years they are essentially taught to do so. • 2. Cultures of sexism – it is often plausible to claim that some institutions and industries use gender to discriminate when they employ and treat people due to perceived abilities. • 3. Culture of a power imbalance – traditional family roles have led to men having coercive power over women.

10. Where to use these! • Action Men and Barbies • Sexist Industries • Power Imbalances • Pretty much every debate on feminism ever... Link it to role models. • Affirmative action debates and porn, can win for both sides. • Most feminism debates, particularly stuff like prostitution.

11. I need people to buy my norm... • You will see many good debaters at competitions who sell their normative arguments through sheer passion at the injustice they claim the norm creates. • It is generally a bad idea to try and sell tenuous normative arguments in this way – a prerequisite for these arguments is good reasons why they are true.