Lincoln-Douglas Debate (LD)

NOVICE TOPIC (Sept and Oct):
Resolved: In the United States, national service ought to be mandatory.

OPEN TOPIC (Sept and Oct):

Resolved: In the United States criminal justice system, plea bargaining is just. 

Lincoln-Douglas Value debate, a.k.a. LD, differs from Policy and Parli in that students debate individually, without a partner. "Value" debate means the topics are also more driven by philosophy and morality, or what 'ought' to be, than in any other form of debate students will find. Policy and Parli both tend to focus more on what 'is', finding solutions to the problems of the status quo (what is happening right now), and doing specific action steps. LD is about taking a value position rather than finding an actionable solution.

However, LD has many similarities to other debate forms. Just like in Policy and Parli, a student must be prepared to debate both the Affirmative and Negative sides to a topic. The LD format can be a happy balance of Policy and Parli in that competitors will know their topic and be able to prepare in advance AND the topic changes every two months, thereby exposing the student to more topics than Policy debate while eliminating much of the pressure involved in Parli debate. Furthermore, in the LD format, students have a cross-examination period like in Policy instead of having to interrupt speeches to ask questions as in Parli.

LD may appeal more to some students because it involves fewer people and therefore less competition, fewer speeches, and less speech time overall. However, a debater who competes in LD will proportionally have more speaking time in a round than they would in both Policy and Parli, meaning they may feel more confident that they by themselves could win a round without relying on a partner. At the same time, that competitor will not have the opportunity to collaborate with someone else and will have to rely on only themselves for victory. The student will have four minutes of preparation time during the round to use at their discretion. See the attached PDFs for length and order of speeches, as well as a sample ballot a judge would use to evaluate a round. View an example LD round below.