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.

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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.

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Specificity

• Sample Counterplan Text By all necessary means,
  the counterplan will adopt the affirmative plan
  with the following exclusion Health insurance
  coverage for mental health care will be limited
  to those treatments with are voluntarily selected
  by the patient through informed consent and are
  non-coercive.

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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.

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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

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Mutual Exclusivity

• It is logically impossible to adopt both the plan
  and the counterplan.
• Example Affirmative team proposes to expand
  federal child protective services programs while
  the counterplan bans all federal involvement with
  child protective services.
• 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 coercive care example, the counterplan
  would uniquely avoid the psychiatric abuse
  disadvantage.

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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 the negative team offers a state
  counterplan. The affirmative suggests a
  permutation to have the federal government
  provide the funding and have all implementation
  by the states.