Actor (policy debate)

Actor (policy debate)

In policy debate, an actor is an entity that enacts a certain policy action. If a plan were to have the U.S. send humanitarian aid to Sudan, then the actor would be the United States federal government.

Many times, actors are subdivided into more specific "agents".

The most common agents include the Supreme Court, the President (usually through the use of an Executive Order), and Congress. Sometimes, the actors get smaller and devolve into Executive agencies. For example, on a previous high school debate topic—the use of renewable energy—the plan could use the Department of Energy.

Sometimes the Negative will use a counterplan to solve for the harms of the affirmative and the most common method of doing so is by the use of an agent counterplan, which simply does the mandates of the Affirmative plan through the use of another agent. Sometimes, the Negative will even use another country. If the Affirmative plan were to send peacekeeping troops to Congo, then the Negative would have Bangladesh (or any other country), do it.

Theoretical debates often ensue as to the legitimacy of agent counterplans. For a video about agent counterplans, try [http://ddw.wikispaces.com/Counterplan+PICS+and+agents]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Actor (disambiguation) — An actor is a person who plays a role in theater, cinema or television.Actor can also mean: * Actants, also called actors, is, in actor network theory (a general theory of sociological behaviour), the one who performs the act. * In Interactions… …   Wikipedia

  • American Parliamentary Debate Association — The American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) is the oldest intercollegiate parliamentary debating association in the United States, and one of two in the nation overall, the other being the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) …   Wikipedia

  • Common Foreign and Security Policy — This article deals with the workings of European Union foreign policy. For the relations between the European Union and third countries, see Foreign relations of the European Union. European Union This a …   Wikipedia

  • Constitutional debate in Canada — Constitution of Canada This article is part of a series Constitutional history …   Wikipedia

  • European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) — The European Centre for Development Policy Management is an independent foundation which was established in 1986 in order to monitor and support development cooperation between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)… …   Wikipedia

  • Common Fisheries Policy — The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is the fisheries policy of the European Union (EU). It sets quotas for which member states are allowed to catch what amounts of each type of fish, as well as encouraging the fishing industry by various market… …   Wikipedia

  • Foreign policy interest group — NOTOC A foreign policy interest group, according to Thomas Ambrosio, is a domestic interest group which seeks to directly or indirectly influence their government s foreign policy.Ambrosio, Thomas. 2002. Ethnic identity groups and U.S. foreign… …   Wikipedia

  • Counterplan — For other uses, see Counterplan (disambiguation). Part of the series Policy Debate Organization Policy debate competitions Inter Collegiate policy debate Format Structure of policy debate · …   Wikipedia

  • Palo Alto High School — Address 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, California, 94301 United States …   Wikipedia

  • Liberty University — Motto Knowledge Aflame Established 1971 Type Private Religious affiliation Southern Baptist Con …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”