Counterplans Counterplans Defined Defeating A Counterplan Conditional Counterplans

Counterplan Defined:

A counter plan is a nontopical plan presented by the Negative team that offers an alternative to the Affirmative's plan. In simple terms, the negative gives a plan and claims that its plan is the best. In East Texas, counterplans are unusual and, therefore, are dangerous because our debaters do not get much practice defending against them. To be effective, the counterplan must be:

• Nontopical: One or more major provisions for the plan must violate the resolution, i.e.
  .... Agent Of Change: Instead of the United States government acting as the agent of change, the negative might propose action by the United Nations.
  ....Terms Of Change: Instead of changing foreign policy, the negative may propose changing domestic US laws that prevent businesses from purchasing Chinese consumer goods.
  ....Target of Change: Instead of pointing the change in foreign affair towards China, the negative might propose targeting the individual leaders within China.
• Mutually Exclusive: Both the Negative Counterplan and the Affirmative's plan must not be able to co-exist - limited to having one but not the other - can't have both at the same time.
  .....1. Mutually Exclusive - YES: The Affirmative calls for absolute free trade between the US and China. The Negative makes it illegal for US businesses to buy Chinese goods. One promotes trade, the other restricts trade - you can't have both at the same time.
  .....2. Mutually Exclusive - NO: The plan calls for trade sanctions, the counterplan makes it illegal for US businesses to buy Chinese goods. Both restrict trade - you can have both.
• Competitive: Adopting the counterplan must be superior to adopting the Affirmative's plan. Adopting the counterplan must produce more benefits (advantages) with less cost (disadvantages) than the Affirmative. (NOTE: If a Negative team argues that the counterplan does not have to be mutually exclusive, then it must demonstrate that adopting the Negative counterplan alone would be more desirable/beneficial than adopting both the Affirmative's plan and the Negative's counterplan together.)

Return to top
Return to main directory

Defeating A Counterplan:

Dealing with counterplans can be touchy, but they can be defeated.

• Don't Drop Your Case: The number one mistake made by Affirmatives is that they become involved with the counterplan & forget their case. Protecting stock issues is always the first priority.
• Burden Of Proof: "He who asserts must prove." If the Negative is going to propose a plan, they bear the burden of proof just like the Affirmative. They must prove everything in their case! If they loose one or two major counterplan issues - the counterplan is dead.
• Topicality: Any argument that upholds the resolution is in fact an argument for the Affirmative. If you can prove the counterplan is topical then it supports the resolution - it supports your position. This is the most powerful weapon against a counterplan - if they are topical, use it!
• Mutually Exclusive: If you can show that both the Affirmative's plan and the Negative's counterplan can be adopted at the same time and not work against each other, then the counterplan is irrelevant. The counterplan has no bearing on the resolution because it does not prove that the resolution is not valid. This is the second most powerful weapon against the counterplan.
• Competitive: Get out your negative evidence - you're going to need it. Arguing competitiveness takes more energy and time then dealing with topicality and exclusiveness. Here you must argue the counterplan (1) lacks solvency, (2) will not produce the expected advantages, or (3) will create devastating disadvantages. Like a negative, you must only win one or two of these issues.
• BUT, DON'T FORGET YOU MUST ALSO DEFEND YOUR ENTIRE AFFIRMATIVE CASE.

Return to top
Return to main directory

Conditional Counterplans:

Some teams will try to have it both ways, present a counterplan and present arguments against the status quo. They may present the counterplan in the 1NC and the other stock issue arguments in the 2NC. This approach presents a lot of work for the Affirmative but the arguments are less developed. The 2AC must kill the counterplan and preempt the 2NC attacks

Return to top
Return to main directory