By the Equality in Forensics Contributor Team
Fiat is the idea that an advocacy will happen. To understand the scope and nature of a PF motion, it is important to understand what the aff and neg sides can argue will or won’t happen.
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Fiat is the idea that an advocacy will happen. It usually doesn’t matter what is probable or likely in a policy-making resolution because voting aff on the resolution means that the advocacy instantly happens.
Ex) In the Septober 2022 resolution, “The United States Federal Government should substantially increase its investment in high-speed rail,” the fiat of the resolution entails an increase in investment, not to be mistaken for an increase in the development of the rails themselves.
Post-fiat implications are those that happen when you affirm the resolution. Post-fiat means that you are discussing the topical arguments in the round. When someone addresses the “pre-fiat” implications of the round, they are referring to the non-topical debate. The pre-fiat debate will discuss the impact of the actual actions happening in the round. This would include theoretical and kritikal arguments.
While the defense for substance is fiat, many often argue that pre-fiat impacts should be evaluated first. Pre-fiat arguments will check the grounds on which the substance is debated — if the substance is being debated unfairly or if offensive commentary is being used in round, then those need to be taken into account before the substance itself.
This isn’t to say that post-fiat is always put second. Certain progressive arguments are not mutually exclusive with substance, so it is important to question your opponents on their justification for pre-fiat OVER post-fiat. This means that if the implication for losing the post-fiat debate is to “drop the debater,” then you can advocate for post-fiat implications to still access a path to the ballot.
<aside> <img src="/icons/star-outline_red.svg" alt="/icons/star-outline_red.svg" width="40px" /> Some misconceptions with fiat: VBriefly. Pre-Fiat in LD: VBriefly.
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