Policy Theory Made Easy
We've spent the last few weeks exploring the fundamentals of Omni theory: Resolutionism, Scope, and Presumption. It can be a lot to keep track of. Fortunately, there are some assumptions you can make about almost all policy rounds that allow you to take shortcuts in live rounds. Let's put it all together.
Round start: Neg wins on presumption.
Since the resolution is a positive statement, Preston needs some proof to accept it. The negative starts the round winning by default.
Aff case: Proof of one instance.
Almost all policy resolutions have specific Scope. The affirmative picks one instance - a topical plan - that they think they can win.
The negative continues to win the remaining 99% of the resolution on presumption. Nothing has changed there. The affirmative doesn't care about it, and the negative already won it. So neither side has any reason to discuss it. All topical plans that the affirmative doesn't run are presumed untrue and ignored.
The debate now focuses on the plan that the affirmative introduced. It asks two questions.
1) Does the case remove presumption from the resolution?
Which usually means: is this an example of the resolution? If not, then we go back to where we started: presuming that the resolution is false. All arguments about this - such as topicality - fall under the broad category of Presumption arguments.
2) Is the aff case a good idea?
The case can be evaluated using an impact calculus. If the sum of all its effects is positive, the plan is a good idea. All arguments about this fall under the broad categories of Benefits (good effects) and Detriments (bad effects).
Omni policy arguments are either Presumption, Benefits, or Detriments. All arguments except for kritiks fit into them. Of course, the phrase "except for kritiks" applies to almost every aspect of debate theory.
That means you don't have to think about things like instances in most rounds. You just have to ask:
"Does the aff plan remove presumption from the resolution, and is it a good idea?"
That's it. It's that simple. We took the long road to get here because we want you to see the foundation beneath it, especially as we wade into specific argument classes and especially if you have a background in a different model. But the final result is elegantly simple policy theory that looks just like value and fact theory if you dig deep enough.
The Omni series is just getting started. Stay tuned.