Note: This PowerPoint can be accessed on the PaDS
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Counterplan Lecture
GDI 2013
Austin Layton
• Definition: Typically defined as an alternative policy
option that is forwarded by the negative team to solve a
majority of the aff’s advantages, while avoiding it’s
disadvantages.
• Short-hand: CP, or Cplan
• Example: Your friend (the affirmative) says we should go
to McDonalds because we are hungry. What is a
counterplan? What are the advantages is solves? What are
the disadvantages that it avoids?
What is a Counterplan?
• CP Text – just like the 1AC has a plan text, the CP that is
introduced in the 1NC needs to have a CP text. So this
follows something like “USFG should…”, “The People’s
Republic of China should…”, etc.
• CP Competition – we’ll talk about this later
• CP Solvency – just like the 1AC has solvency evidence,
you need to have solvency evidence for you CP. This
section of the 1NC is dedicated to showing that there is
no unique reason to do the 1AC.
• CP Net-benefit – Proof that some DA links to plan, not
the CP. Or some advantage that the CP solves, but the
plan doesn’t.
Counterplan Structure (1NC)
Types of Counterplans
• Idea: Instead of the USFG doing a particular policy,
another country could easily do such a policy. Ex. China
can economically engage Cuba.
• Forces the aff to have a “US Key” warrant – what are
some in the Cuba aff?
• Net-benefit: US action is bad, so politics or sphere of
influence DA, or X Actor Good, Chinese Politics or Soft
Power, etc.
International Actor CPs
• Idea: the whole federal government doesn’t have to work
together to pass the plan, but one singular domestic actor
is sufficient to solve
• Types: Courts, Congress, Agency (DOI, Chamber of
Commerce, Etc.)
• Forces the US to have a “whole USFG is key” warrant.
What’s an example of that? Clarity/Uniformity
• Net-benefits: Politics
Domestic Actor CPs
• Idea: The plan’s action is not, by itself, the one and only
issue critical to solving the advantage. The CP proposes
an alternative policy to solve the advantage.
• Types: Cooperate with Mexico on Alternative Energy,
Give Democracy to Latin America, Etc. What are some
examples as it relates to the Cuba aff? Florida Enviro CP?
Venezuela Cutoff CP? China Influence CP?
• Forces the aff to defend why their “Mechanism” is key
• Net-benefits: Politics, Mechanism Key
Advantage CPs
• Idea: the economic engagement that the aff gives is good,
but doesn’t necessarily have to go to the country that the
aff chooses. These types of CPs are used to resolve noncountry specific advantages. Ex. Credibility/Influence
Advantages
• Forces the aff to have a defense of their specific country.
So question: the Cuba aff has an advantage that says
Cuba influence is key to overall Latin America influence,
what is a CP for that?
• Net-benefits: Country-specific DAs i.e.
Cuba/Venezuela/Mexico Engagement Bad
Engage Another Country CPs
• Engagement vs. Containment – huge theoretical debate
• Forces the aff to defend engagement as a theory
• This centers around the argument that engagement is
bad/unpopular/fails because it’s ineffective at fixing
countries and they will just pocket the engagement, but
containment is better because it forces the country to
change
• The more specific the aff the less applicable the CP is
Non-Engagement CPs
• http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/articles/2000/6/sum
mer%20haass/2000survival.pdf
• “While policy-makers should give greater consideration to the idea of
engagement, incentives will be applicable only in a limited set of
circumstances. In addition, unlike other foreign-policy tools,
engagement is open to charges of appeasement from its critics.
Sceptics have also argued that engagement strategies can invite
problems of moral hazard, where a cash-strapped regime watching
America ‘buy out’ North Korea’s nuclear programme may be
inspired to embark on its own endeavour in the hopes of later
‘selling’ it to the US. Moreover, as a strategy which often depends on
reciprocal actions between the US and the target country, engagement
is likely to involve even higher risks and uncertainties than other
foreign-policy strategies.”
Example
• Idea: there are other types of engagement strategies like
political or military engagement
• Forces the aff to defend the specific type of engagement,
the more specific the aff the better
Non-Economic Engage CPs
• Important Definition: Normal Means
• Idea: that there is a normal process in which the plan
happens (that usually the 1AC doesn’t explicitly say) and
the neg counterplans with an alternative way
• Delay, Consult, Condition, Veto-Cheato, Etc.
• Forces the aff to have a “Certainty Key”, “Immediacy
Key”, or “Clarity Key” Warrant
• Most judges think this isn’t competitive, but we will talk
about competition a little later because it still does all of
the plan
Process CP
• Does most of the plan EXCEPT one part
• Forces the aff to defend 100% of the plan (usually a part
that the aff isn’t ready to defend)
• For Cuba aff: CP to authorize Cuban drilling EXCEPT in
one part of the ocean
• These CPs are usually the MOST SPECIFIC and the
HARDEST to answer/create
Plan-Inclusive CPs (PICS)
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•
•
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1AC Solvency Advocates
Policy Think Tanks (CATO, Heritage, Hoover, CFR, etc.)
Authors Directly Responding to 1AC authors
Google is always good too
Finding CP Evidence
Counterplan Competition
Not That Competition…
• Mutually Exclusive: The idea that the counterplan and plan
cannot occur at the same time. Ex: Engagement vs.
Containment.
• Net-Beneficial: That the CP is a BETTER solution/policy
option than the affirmative. Typically means there is a DA to
the plan that the CP avoids Ex. China CP and China
DA/Politics DA
• Plan-minus: The CP is less than the plan
• Opportunity Cost: “Value of a foregone option when one
action is chosen.” (Economics term). Usually a term used to
describe a preference between two options.
Important Definitions (1/2)
Mutually Exclusive
Definition: A set of proposals that cannot coexist. (One action
precludes another)
Example:
A GDI camper needs to be in the lecture hall by 9AM.
A GDI camper wants to sleep in until noon.
Net Beneficial
Definition: A set of proposals that should not coexist. (One action is
preferable to both)
Example:
A GDI camper needs to be in the lecture hall by 9AM.
A GDI camper wants to play Robot Unicorn until noon.
Examples
• Permutation: The idea that the plan and all or parts of
the CP can be combined. Typically used as an aff answer
to CPs. Why might this be useful?
• Avoids DAs, or Solves CPs advantages (Avoids Plan-Plan)
• To show the CP isn’t competitive
• Ex. China CP and China DA – China and US working
together preserves China influence
• Permutation Theory
• Severance
• Intrinsic
• See Next Slide
Important Definitions (2/2)
• Aff Answer
• Permutation: Must include all of the plan and all or parts
of the CP
• Why should it include all of the plan?
• Why should it include all or part of the CP?
• What if it doesn’t do these things?
Permutation
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•
•
•
•
STOP
Solvency
Theory
Offense
Permutation
Other Aff Answers
• Necessary vs. Sufficient –
• Helps to indict the other teams evidence
• A CP is really just case defense – and can be deployed
this way in a debate
• Always update your CP to account for aff answers, write
blocks to common aff answers
• Change your CP text to fiat around the best aff answers
i.e. funding concerns with the states CP
Advanced Strategies
Necessary
In order to win the GDI Tournament, you need to attend the
Georgia Debate Institute.
Sufficient
In order to win the GDI Tournament, you could win every
round including the final round.
…you could pay Austin $1,000,000 and he will rig the
tournament for you.