Lincoln-Douglas debates are a popular style of debate format used in competitions and occasionally in politics. They focus on moral or ethical issues, and are named after the famous debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858. Today’s variation is divided into seven sections, strictly governed by time allowed. The format is most often used by high school debate teams, with critics suggesting that the outcome is often determined by how well participants construct a logical argument rather than how useful their solution might be.
A Lincoln-Douglas debate, also called an LD, is a style of debate format popular in competitions and occasionally in the political arena. Most focus on values for one or more moral or ethical issues. The debating style gets its name from the famous debates on American senatorial race between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.
In 1858, the candidates for the Senate from Illinois were Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas. The two agreed on a series of debates in various parts of the state, largely centered around the immensely contentious situation of slavery vis-à-vis Illinois and the United States. These debates are considered to be among the largest in the nation’s history and are often considered a contributing factor in Lincoln’s presidential election, despite him losing the Senate campaign to Douglas. The original format was for an hour-long speech by a candidate, an hour-and-a-half rebuttal, and then a final half-hour response from the original speaker. Today’s variation is markedly different, with a strict set of procedural rules.
A modern Lincoln-Douglas debate is divided into seven sections, strictly governed by the time allowed. The issues being debated are usually chosen to allow for strong support or criticism through the use of inductive logic and good debate tactics. The format is usually followed closely, but some exceptions occur in certain tournaments or contests.
In an LD debate, the person speaking in support of the issue, called the Affirmative, is given a six-minute segment to construct their argument. The opposition, or negative, then has three minutes to ask affirmative questions, followed by seven minutes to state the case in the negative and argue against the affirmative. The Affirmative has three minutes to cross-examine, then has four minutes to refute, using the evidence from both their argument and the Negative argument. The Negative is given a final six minutes to refute, summarize, and seek support from the judges, followed by a similar three-minute period for the Affirmative. Including prep time, the entire debate round takes approximately 45 minutes.
The Lincoln-Douglas debate format is most often used by high school debate teams, and a variety of tournaments exist at the local and high school levels. The format also occasionally occurs in professional politics. Critics of the format suggest that, like standardized tests, the outcome of debates is often determined by how well participants construct a logical argument rather than how useful their solution might be. Critics argue that for this reason, the Lincoln-Douglas style of debate is best left to competitions where learning a logical structure is an important educational tool, rather than real-world politics where solutions need not be just logical, but also realistic.
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