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5.3.1 Prime Minister
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The debate begins with a seven-minute speech by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has three basic responsibilities: 1) to define and interpret the motion, 2) to describe the approach the First Government Team will take, and 3) to develop the case for the motion. The first of those responsibilities, defining and interpreting the motion, is particularly important because it sets the stage for the entire debate. Defining and interpreting the motion are similar but subtly different processes. When defining the motion, the Prime Minister will explicitly define any ambiguous terms that might be contained in the motion. When interpreting the motion, the Prime Minister will then use those definitions, along with the motion as a whole, to focus and narrow the motion so that the rest of the debate can be productive.
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So, the process of defining and interpreting the motion consists of defining any ambiguous terms, then focusing and narrowing the debate. The Prime Minster has the right to define and interpret the motion and the responsibility to do so in a reasonable fashion. If the Prime Minister’s interpretation is a poor one, the likely result will be a poor debate. In order to properly define and interpret the motion, the Prime Minster should: define any ambiguous terms in the motion; show how those definitions are reasonable ones and; interpret the motion by appropriately narrowing it in a way that will lead to a good and productive debate. More will be said about defining and interpreting the motion in Chapter 6 on constructing arguments for the First Government Team.
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The second responsibility of the Prime Minister is to describe the approach that the First Government Team will take in the debate. That responsibility is most important in situations where the motion involves advocating a policy or action. In those cases, the Prime Minister’s interpretation may include a proposed policy or action. Sometimes, the Prime Minister’s interpretation of the debate will consist of a brief description of some course of action that the Government Team will defend. When the Prime Minister interprets the motion by describing a proposed policy or course of action, that interpretation sometimes is called a “model” or simply a “proposal.” The Prime Minister is not required to present a model, but may choose to do so when he or she wants to present a clear outline of the proposed policy or action.
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The final responsibility of the Prime Minister is to construct a “case” for the motion. Simply stated, a case consists of one or more arguments supporting the Prime Minister’s interpretation of the motion. Therefore, the Prime Minister will outline the arguments supporting the interpretation and will develop each of those arguments. The Prime Minister need not present all of the arguments for the First Government Team. In many cases, the Prime Minister will state that the First Government Team will have a certain number of arguments, and that the Deputy Prime Minister will present others.
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The Prime Minister is responsible for presenting what is called a prima facie case. The phrase prima facie means literally “first face.” Thus, the Prime Minister must present a case that, on its first face, is convincing enough to support the motion. That the arguments presented constitute a prima facie case does not mean that they are so strong they cannot be refuted. Nor does prima facie mean that those arguments constitute the totality of the arguments that can and will be used to support the motion. Simply put, a prima facie case is one that is strong enough to convince a reasonable audience prior to any refutation being brought against it.
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5.3.2 Leader of Opposition
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Before considering the primary responsibilities of the Leader of Opposition, a few words about how the Leader should react to the Prime Minister’s definition and interpretation of the motion are in order. In most ordinary situations, the Leader of Opposition should explicitly accept the definition and interpretation of the motion as presented by the Prime Minister. In extraordinary cases, when the definition is completely unreasonable as to preclude meaningful debate, the Leader of Opposition has the right to reject the definition. The problem with rejecting the definition is that such an action will ultimately lead to a very bad debate for which the First Opposition Team must share the responsibility with the First Government Team who introduced the unreasonable interpretation in the first place. Therefore, even in the event of an unreasonable definition, the Leader of Opposition should point out to the judge and the audience that the definition and interpretation presented by the Prime Minister is unreasonable, but then should go ahead and accept the definition for the purposes of the current debate.
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After considering the definition and interpretation offered by the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition has three primary responsibilities: 1) to establish the stance that both Opposition Teams will pursue throughout the debate, 2) to refute part or all of the Prime Minister’s case, and 3) to present one or more arguments in opposition to the Prime Minister’s interpretation of the motion. No “rule” indicates that these responsibilities must be carried out in a particular order. The order is completely at the discretion of the debater. Sometimes a situation will call for beginning with refutation and then proceeding to argument construction, and sometimes a savvy debater will begin by constructing arguments then proceeding to refutation. In fact, especially advanced debaters are sometimes able to weave refutation and construction into a tapestry that creates a seamless fabric of argument.
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As the responsibilities of the Leader of Opposition and the rest of the speakers are explained, one point needs to be made clear. The responsibilities can be carried out in a variety of ways. Each responsibility can be addressed individually, or they can be woven together into a tapestry of argumentation. The main point is that the responsibilities are derived from the logical and persuasive functions of a speech, not from some arbitrary rule-driven calculus. How these responsibilities are carried out is a judgment made by each individual speaker. Having explained that each responsibility can be carried out in a variety of ways, the remainder of the discussion of each speaker’s responsibilities, for the sake of clarity, will be detailed as if they were separate and independent responsibilities.
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First, the Leader of Opposition should establish a stance that both Opposition Teams will pursue throughout the debate. This responsibility is similar to the Prime Minister’s responsibility to interpret and narrow the motion for the debate. Certainly, the Leader of Opposition is not in a position to restrict the arguments that the Second Opposition Team will present, but the Leader of Opposition, nevertheless, has the right and the responsibility to describe the general direction that both Opposition Teams will take. Chapter 7 will note that the Leader of Opposition can choose among several alternatives: 1) defending the present situation, 2) defending the present situation with minor alterations, or 3) constructing an alternate proposal that is different from both the present situation and the Government Team’s proposal. The point made here is that, if the Leader of Opposition chooses any one of those three alternatives, both the First and Second Opposition Teams are obliged to follow those alternatives in the same way that the Second Government Team is obliged to follow the interpretation advanced by the First Government team. If the First Opposition Team chooses to explicitly defend the present situation, the Second Opposition Team cannot simultaneously be loyal to the First Opposition and abandon a defense of the present situation to pursue an alternative proposal.
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Second, the Leader of Opposition should refute part or all of the Prime Minister’s arguments for the motion. Because of the limits of time, the Leader of Opposition cannot reasonably expect to refute all of the Prime Minister’s arguments. The proper goal is to select and refute the most important arguments presented by the Prime Minister. More will be said about refutation in Chapter 10.
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Third, and most importantly, the Leader of Opposition should present one, two, or three arguments directed against the Prime Minister’s interpretation of the motion. Those arguments are different from the arguments offered in refutation. They should consist of the most persuasive reasons that the Leader of Opposition can present to convince the audience to reject the motion as interpreted by the Prime Minister.
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5.3.3 Deputy Prime Minister
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The Deputy Prime Minister has three primary obligations: 1) to refute arguments presented by the Leader of Opposition, 2) to rebuild the case presented by the Prime Minister, and 3) to construct one or more arguments for the case presented by the Prime Minister.
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First, the Deputy Prime Minister defends and rebuilds the case presented by the Prime Minister by engaging any refutation presented against the case by the Leader of Opposition. That task needs to be accomplished in a very systematic fashion. The Deputy should take up the Prime Minister’s argument one by one and defend each argument against any important points of refutation offered by the Leader of Opposition. Thus, at the end of that section of the Deputy’s speech, the audience should see that the case originally presented by the Prime Minister still stands as strongly as it did when initially presented. If that obligation is not carried out clearly, all the work done by the First Government Team and by the Prime Minister to establish a strong and compelling case will be lost.
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Second, the Deputy Prime Minister should refute any of the important independent arguments presented by the Leader of Opposition. Like the Leader of Opposition, the Deputy should not try to refute all arguments, just the most important ones.
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Finally, the Deputy Prime Minster should construct one or two additional arguments to the case presented by the Prime Minister. The reasons for adding new arguments are two-fold: First, the Prime Minister may not have had adequate time to develop all of the arguments that the First Government Team wishes to present and, second, presenting these additional arguments gives Deputy Prime Minister a constructive role in the debate. Rather than simply rebuilding and refuting, the Deputy Prime Minister also has an important role in constructing arguments for the motion. Thus, the adjudicator will judge both the refutation and construction of arguments offered by the Deputy Prime Minister.
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5.3.4 Deputy Leader of Opposition
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The duties of the Deputy Leader of Opposition are similar to those of the Deputy Prime Minister. The Deputy Leader should 1) advance the refutation offered by the Leader of Opposition, 2) refute arguments offered by the Deputy Prime Minister, 3) defend and rebuild new arguments offered by the Leader of Opposition, and 4) construct one or more new arguments that can be added to those offered by the Leader of Opposition.
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First, the Deputy Leader should advance the refutation offered by the Leader of Opposition. Advancing the Leader of Opposition’s refutation involves extending the important points of refutation offered by the leader of Opposition. If the Deputy Leader ignores the refutation offered by the Leader, the judge and audience might rightly assume that the refutation presented by the leader was either faulty or not very important. Instead, the Deputy Leader needs to advance that Leader’s refutation showing that the original refutation is still sound.
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Second, the Deputy Leader should refute any new arguments presented by the Deputy Prime Minister. As suggested earlier, an effective Deputy Prime Minister probably will have offered arguments above and beyond those offered by the Prime Minister. If that is the case, the Deputy Leader should engage those arguments, as this speech is the last opportunity for the First Opposition Team to refute those arguments.
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Third, the Deputy Leader should defend and rebuild any arguments presented by the Leader of Opposition. The task of the Deputy Leader is to make sure that the Leader’s arguments still stand firm in the mind of the judges and audience. To do so, the Deputy Leader needs to consider each argument one by one, engage any refutation offered by the Deputy Prime Minister, and therefore rebuild each argument.
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