Most Used Debate Formats

Parliamentary Debate

The emphasis in this form of debate is on persuasiveness, logic, and wit.  Unlike in other forms of debate, where the resolution is established well in advance of a tournament and is the same for every round in the tournament, in Parliamentary debate the resolution is usually not established until 10 minutes before the debate round begins, and there is a new resolution for every round of debate.  Since it would be unreasonable to expect teams to research every topic they could be possibly be asked to debate, parliamentary debate requires noevidence whatsoever.

This form of debate is called “parliamentary” because of its vague resemblance to the debates that take place in the British parliament.  The proposition team is called the “Government,” and the opposition team is called (appropriately) the “Opposition.”  The Government team consists of two debaters, the Prime Minister (PM) and the Member of Government (MG).  The Opposition team also consists of two debaters, the Leader of the Opposition (LO) and the Member of the Opposition (MO).

Format. 

Read Full Post »

Abraham Lincoln – a leader of high integrity

In 1982, forty-nine historians and political scientists were asked by the Chicago Tribune to rate all the Presidents through Jimmy Carter in five categories: leadership qualities, accomplishments/crisis management, political skills, appointments, and character/integrity. At the top of the list stood Abraham Lincoln. He was followed by Franklin Roosevelt, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, and Harry Truman. None of these other Presidents exceeded Lincoln in any category according to the rate scale.

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. Before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate.

Read Full Post »