This article will give you some basic ideas about how to construct the 1st government's case. I will later also post some systems, that I received from different people that are kind of a check list on what to do when you make an 1st gov's case.
The first and most important thing that you have to do is the main question. “What is this debate really about”. The answer on this question should be your problem, your plan and your biggest argument. And the answer should be something big. A value. An idea or similar.
Next, you need to identify the problem. Do not be airfreight to identify a too big of a problem. What normally happens is, that the government's debaters find a small problem, that they would like to solve and then they can't really find good arguments for that. Find an obvious problem that is a problem in more than one state. Don't go “We in my country of Butan we have a problem because 3 young children can not get a pink pencil as they would like. This is why we will use the U.N. And change legislation on the whole world”… hrmm. Don't. Really 😀
After you have a good problem, you need an even better solution. That is not the plan yet. You need to know, what the goal, or the end product of your policy is going to be. And you need to tell that to the judges. And after you have done that you need to come out with a proposal. Or a plan. Or a model. All three words mean the same, just that debaters with a GB background normally use the word model. In the model be specific, but no too much. Tell the judge who is going to do what and how. Don't go into the details, how you are going to get the right wing party in Poland to vote for abortion. This is not important. What is important is, if the idea that is behind your plan (remember, the first question) is good or no, if its going to do good to the world.
And now its time for the arguments and benefits. As I said, I believe that the great value that you have identified at the start should be your first and biggest argument. Explain to the judge, why is it important that a woman has control over her own body. And after that you go to the other smaller arguments. Find a line, on which you and your partner are going to present the arguments. You can speak about the theoretical background, your partner about the practical implications. And theres nothing left for the 2nd gov 😀 (yeah right, they always find something) …
Do not forget to link each and every argument to your problem/plan… “ And the breach of the right to control your own body is the problem in the status quo and the problem that we have identified, and the plan that we are proposing is giving this great right back to women.” And better Im sure you can do better. And that's it… Yeah right.. Theres many more to come, like argumentation, structure, time allocation and else. I will write about that in other articles.
Hey, my name is Peter and I’m the author of this website and all the content on this page. I have been a debater, a debate trainer, debate tournament organizer and everything else with a debate prefix for more than 10 years and I’ve seen it all. I want to help everyone to be a better debater and if you want to help too, please let me know. Keep on debating!