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There are a variety of views about how much fiat power an affirmative has.
One View: The affirmative can have the federal government act and do anything that a federal government would normally do including removing, revising, or adding to existing laws, programs, and policies.
Another View: The affirmative can institute an "end state" where they can argue that something will occur and we will debate the merits of that. For example, the affirmative could "fiat" a reduction in juvenile crime and advocate that the debate should be about whether this is a good or bad thing. This is not a widely held view of fiat.
Another View: The
affirmative can use any institution or grouping of people that an
advocate can demonstrate will be able act and put into place the
affirmative plan.
Typical things about affirmative fiat:
the affirmative can only do what the topic says it can do--so the affirmative does not have fiat power to take action outside the resoultion.
many believe the
affirmative has "reciprocal" fiat with the negative's
ability to fiat a counterplan-so, whatever the affirmative can
fiat, so can the negative (though the negative might be able to
fiat additional action since they do not need to be topical)
Based on a question
submitted by Dick Ramey
If you have
additional ideas or revisions--just email me--at
hansonjb@whitman.edu