Politics & Democracy debate motions (page 2)

Strategic voting occurs in elections with more than two candidates, when a voter supports another candidate more strongly than their sincere preference in order to prevent an undesirable outcome.

Primary elections, often abbrev. to primaries, are a process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election

The notion of respectability politics holds that conforming to mainstream standards of appearance and behaviour will lead communities to achieving respect, and therefore, getting better treatment in society

THW abolish the election caucuses and primaries in the United States

You are the liberal teenage child of a conservative politician. One day, you discover that your parent is very corrupt.

A system of election for public officials means that a significant number of middle and higher level public officials are elected by the population of their jurisdiction. The US for example has elected school board directors and fire chiefs at the local level, and elected state attorneys general and state treasurers at the state level. In contrast, some other countries have a system of appointment where practically all public officials are appointed by the government.

Centrism is a political outlook or position that involves acceptance and/or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy, while opposing political changes which would result in a significant shift of society strongly to either the left or the right

A "set-path government" is a system of government where individuals have to first hold a series of positions before they can hold higher office. For instance, an individual may first have to serve as a local council member, before becoming a state representative, before becoming a senator, before becoming a president. There may be a number of different positions at the same 'level' that an individual could hold in order to qualify for the subsequent 'level'. The exact path would likely differ depending on the nation.

The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the legislature of the Palestinian government. This government has limited power over matters such as: culture, education, ID-cards, and the distribution of land and water. The two ruling parties of the PLC are Hamas and Fatah, Hamas is an Islamist party that does not recognise the state of Israel and Fatah is secular, favouring negotiations with Israel. Currently Hamas holds significant control of the Gaza Strip and Fatah controls the West Bank. In 2006 the last legislative election in Palestine was held. Hamas won 30 more seats, despite a close election. In response to Western sanctions to a Hamas led PLC, Fatah retaliated by refusing to form a government with the ruling Hamas party which left the PLC in deadlock for over a decade. With Biden coming into power, Fatah wished to increase favour by demonstrating liberalisation of the Palestinian state by agreeing to host elections in 2021. Fatah offered these elections along with a deal for a joint Hamas-Fatah list that would guarantee Fatah dominance in the PLC. Hamas rejected this deal putting plans for the scheduled Palestinian elections in jeopardy

Political consumerism' refers to people making choices about what to consume based on the politics of the company in question (e.g. boycotting Chick-Fil-A for its stance against abortion, not buying from Ben&Jerry because they advocated for gay marriage)

Court-packing refers to the idea of expanding the number of Supreme Court Justices beyond nine seats, which the US Constitution allows Congress to do. The Supreme Court has seen as few as five justices, and as many as 10 throughout its 231-year existence. Other proposed Supreme Court reforms include set retirement for judges, curbing judicial review powers, abolishing the Supreme Court, or making it a rotating panel of judges.

Revolution entails a fundamental change in the state organization or in the distribution of political power, characterized by a revolt of the population against the authority. This could lead to the modification of the existing constitution or could entirely overturn the political order, bringing about a drastic change of laws and constitutions. Examples of such revolutions include but are not limited to: the Iranian Revolution (1978), the Arab Spring (2010s), the French Revolution (1789-1799), the Velvet Revolution (1989), and the Sudanese Revolution (2018-2019).

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is legally required to cover the news impartially. This means: 1. It cannot take sides on controversial issues 2. The amount of coverage each viewpoint gets should roughly reflect the level of support that viewpoint has in society. 3. It is not required to be neutral on certain fundamental issues like the rule of law and the legitimacy of the democratic process.

Outing is the act of disclosing an LGBT person's sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent.

Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive

Venezuela has an autocratic socialist government lead by president Nicolas Maduro. Currently, the country is experiencing significant political and economic instability due to international sanctions, sagging oil prices, and coup attempts allegedly backed by the USA

Ideological purity, in this debate, refers to a strict adherence to the principles of the movement, without compromising or reaching across party lines. Ideological purity policing refers to policing who and how people should participate in the movement(e.g. calling out allies who deviate from or criticize the movement, prescribing a single correct way of participating in the movement)

Two schools under one roof is a term for schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on the ethnic segregation of children. Children from different ethnic groups, attend classes in the same building, but physically separated from each other and taught separate curricula.

Payday loans are short-term unsecured loans given to borrowers in immediate need of cash. The interest rates on these loans can reach several hundred percent per year.

In August 2016 the Colombian government and the guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed to a historic peace treaty, ending a 50-year conflict. Amongst its conditions, it allowed guerrilla leaders to run for office, gave the FARC state funding to form a political party, and it both allowed regions whom the FARC claims to represent to elect additional representatives in Colombian elections and awarded the FARC 10 guaranteed seats in Parliament for the first two election terms (from 2018 to 2026).

Since 1973, the American Psychiatric Association's Goldwater Rule has instructed psychiatrists not to speculate on the mental health of public figures whom they have not examined. The Rule is widely-followed, and similar norms exist among other mental health professionals.

For the purposes of this debate, there exists a governing AI. The governing AI is able to optimise policy outcomes to maximise or minimize measurable parameters it is given.

Carrie Lam is the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, elected by an Election Committee. Carrie Lam oversees the HKSAR Government. Prior to her role as the Chief Executive, Carrie Lam worked for Hong Kong's civil service since the 1980s. She has received some backing from Beijing, since she assumed the role of Chief Executive on issues including Anti-Extradition Bill and the recent National Security Bill, which was met with mass protests.

'Never Trump Republicans' are a group of prominent Republicans or conservatives who have announced their opposition to Donald Trump as the Republican Party nominee for President.

Power-sharing agreements are agreements that divide political power in the state among different groups in society, such as different religions or political parties. For instance, after the Lebanese civil war, a system was implemented in which seats in parliament as well as government posts are proportionally divided among different religious denominations; the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim, the speaker of parliament a Shiite Muslim and the president a Maronite Christian. Power-sharing agreements guarantee a fixed distribution of power among different groups, as opposed to a system of unrestricted democracy where the distribution of power may change over time.

A constituency link means Members of Parliament (MPs) represent local areas and are directly accountable to voters in those areas for their continued careers. Under this system, MPs still belong to a political party, but voters vote for a particular MP, as opposed to a political party.

The Goldwater rule states that it is unethical for psychiatrists to give a professional opinion about public figures whom they have not examined in person, and from whom they have not obtained consent to discuss their mental health in public statements

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was President of Argentina from 2007 until 2015. She is a leftist populist Peronist. Her presidency included many successful reforms on social welfare in Argentina, but was also marred with corruption (including alleged bribes stolen from the Venezuelan national oil company to fund her campaign, and providing government contracts to former members of her party). This ultimately cost her the 2015 election, where she was replaced by Mauricio Macri. Macri ran on a platform of political and economic reform, and alleviating poverty in Argentina. Under his leadership, inflation rocketed to 56%, and poverty increased from 29% to 35%. While still under investigation for corruption, Kirchner announced that she would run as the VP running mate to Alberto Fernández at the 2019 election, in an attempt to depose Macri. They were successfully elected. It is likely that she will not face prosecution now for any of the corruption charges for which she was being investigated.

On Monday, some members of Malaysia's governing coalition (Pakatan Haripan/PH) defected in an attempt to form a new coalition with some members of the opposition coalition (Barisan National/BN). BN lost the 2018 election to PH in no small part due to significant corruption scandals. Among the defectors were 10 members of the main PH party (PKR), all members of BERSATU (the then Prime Minister, Mahathir's, party), and Amanah (a reformist Islamic party). The proposed coalition would include UMNO (the main BN party), and PAS (an Islamist party) amongst potential other parties. Although he was involved in the defection, Mahathir resigned shortly after as Prime Minister claiming to have been blind-sided by the actions of his party on Monday. To date, no viable government coalition has formed, though is likely to form along the lines mentioned above. This weekend, the king named Muhiyiddin Yasin (an ex-UMNO member who defected to BERSATU prior to the previous election) as Prime Minister and has invited him to attempt to form a viable government.

All third party sellers on Amazon are contractually obliged to settle any dispute between them and Amazon in an Amazon internal arbitration process.

From 1976 to 1983, Argentina was ruled by a military junta. In order to ensure lasting loyalty to the regime, the junta secretly kidnapped children of "subversive" parents as infants.

Hammas has been the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip since 2007. Hamas has always had anti-Israel agendas and has been in active war against Israel since Hamas' inception.

Big data predictive modelling is a growing field that uses large amounts of personal data to predict the likelihood of certain outcomes occuring. Big data predictive modelling finds applications in the criminal justice system, healthcare and housing developement. For example, predictive algorithms have been used to recommend sentences for convicted criminals, to most efficiently allocate scarce healthcare resources, and models that improve the overall efficacy of housing development projects.

Infoslide: Covid-19 has left state x struggling with an economic crisis including negative growth, high unemployment, and significant increase in the government's debt. Managing the crisis requires significant changes to state x's economic policy.

Regional councils (maslikhat) in Kazakhstan work together with the mayors (akim) to control the local budget, development plans, city infrastructure and alike local affairs. Mayors of the cities are not elected, but are appointed directly by the president; regional councils are elected, but the fairness of those elections is often questioned.

Shorting, or short-selling, is when an investor borrows shares and immediately sells them, hoping they can scoop them up later at a lower price, return them to the lender and pocket the difference.

Microtransactions are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments (made through linked credit cards). Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers, although fully paid games have also begun incorporating them. Common forms of microtransactions are purchasing cosmetic items such as skins, purchasing functional items that would otherwise require a significantly greater amount of time and effort to unlock (or not be unlockable at all), and loot boxes where players buy a seemingly random assortment of items although the desirability of these items is rare and subject to chance.

Pre-election polls are polls conducted by organisations such as research centers to estimate voter preferences and each candidate's vote share prior to the election

X is a prominent politician in a relatively conservative society. They have a track record of pushing for policies in favour of a religious majority within the country. You are a journalist in the country known for your progressive writing. You have recently uncovered irrefutable evidence that this politician is gay

In politics, centrism is a political outlook or specific position that involves acceptance or support of a balance between right and left wing views, and opposition to political changes that would result in a significant shift strongly to the left or right.

Demonisation refers to the portrayal of something as entirely wicked, evil, and without any redeeming qualities.

In the first week of March 2020, Covid had already been declared by WHO as a health emergency with over hundred thousand cases in 100 countries and had called all countries to take preventive guidelines for the same. India too had 28 confirmed cases by that time. Holi, to be celebrated from 9-10 March is a major nationwide festival celebrated in India which involves people celebrating in large groups in close proximities (Eg: Putting colour on each other, playing with water etc)

The party whip enforces party discipline in parliament. This means requiring party members to vote in line with the official party platform, rather than based on how they personally wish to vote.

Democratisation refers to the introduction of a democratic system or democratic principles. Powerful civil service appointments include the heads of bureaucratic departments and agencies.

In 2016, the South Korean Supreme Court ruled on the impeachment of the President Park Geun-Hye, due to series of corruptions, with the majority of Korean citizens' support. The current president Moon Jae-In was elected as a result of many swing voters supporting him over other existing candidates (i.e Ahn Cheol-Soo, Hong Joon-Pyo, Yoo Seung-Min) in the following election. However, there has been a recent yet significant increase of swing voters who expressed disappointments in the Moon administration, due to the ensuing disclosure of corruptions (i.e Cho Kuk incident) and the recent conflicts between the minister of justice and the prosecutor general.

Voter insurance is a scheme in which voters can choose to deploy their vote differently - not in favour of a candidate winning, but in order to purchase insurance against a candidate winning. Voters now have the option to tick the insurance option against a particular candidate *in lieu of* voting for any one candidate. The rest of the voting process remains exactly as it was before. All voters who insured themselves against the eventual winner of the election will receive a sum of money from the government as compensation for the projected future harm they will suffer during the term of office. The CA team has found a way to implement voter insurance while preserving completely the anonymity of the voting process, so voters who purchase voter insurance cannot be identified by any part of government.

"In the 2020 U.S Election, the Democratic party won by getting the sufficient amount of Electoral Votes. In the important swing states, they won by a close margin. It is also a fact that there were more voters in 2020 coming from minority groups (Hispanic, African-American, etc.) that voted for the republican party compared to 2016. Which can be observed from Republicans projected to still have more seats in Senate and a decrease of Democratic seats in the House of Representatives. For the purpose of this debate, A ""woke"" is defined by two major characteristics 1. Emphasis on identity politics, to evaluate issues primarily based on identity (e.g. race, gender) instead of using other lenses 2. Believing highly in political correctness

The Johnson Amendment is a US law. It states that tax-exempt entities like churches and charitable organisations are unable to directly or indirectly participate in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate. Specifically, ministers are restricted from endorsing or opposing candidates from the pulpit. If they do, they risk losing their tax-exempt status.

In the distant future, most of the population lives in a high poverty area known as "The Inland" (97% of population). There is an elite group, though, that is chosen to live in a virtual paradise known as "The Offshore" (only 3% of the population). Every year, each 20-year-old gets a chance to make it to the island paradise by taking a series of tests known as "The Process". Only three percent of the candidates succeed and qualify to leave the impoverished Inland area. There is a rebellion growing from an organisation known as The Cause, who seek to end "The Process" and redistribute Offshore's wealth. Currently, the Cause's plan is to find a candidate with a high chance of passing, to enter the test and to sabotage it. The plan is to corrupt the data (and potentially delay "The Process"), shutting off the power source and/or to be a person living in the Offshore that would continuously update "The Cause" and do their missions. You are a 20 year-old that has a high chance of passing "The Process" . Before taking part in "The Process", a member from "The Cause" asks you to execute their plan of sabotaging the whole system. You are told that you are their only hope.

Deportation is where a person is expelled from a country for violating rules of entry. It is not to be confused with extradition, in which a person is escorted to another country to be put on trial for crimes committed in that jurisdiction.

India currently has an anti-defection law, which forfeits the seats of members of the Indian national parliament who switch parties while in office or vote against the official party line on any legislative bill. However, if at least one-third of a political party's members switch parties while in office or vote against their party line, the anti-defection law does not apply

In 2016, the Republican-led Senate refused to hold a hearing or vote on then-President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, saying it was too close to the election

Court-packing is a political tactic that, in the context of USA, refers to using legislation to expand the number of judges in a court. This tactic has never been employed successfully in the U.S.A. although there have been attempts to do so.

The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 separated investment and commercial banks. Specifically, investment banks and securities firms were prohibited from taking on deposits, and Federal Reserve member banks were prohibited from dealing in non-governmental securities. Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999.

Big-game hunting is a commercial activity involving the hunting of large animals (for example, elephant and lion), often involving wealthy hunters paying to hunt in less wealthy countries.

The yellow economic circle, also known as the yellow economy, is a system of classifying businesses in Hong Kong based on their support or opposition to the 2019–20 protests. The classification of shops are : Yellow - Protestors; Blue - Hong Kong Police; Red - CCP; Green - Politically Neutral

Loot boxes/gacha are luck-based in-game purchases that are a mainstay of many popular free-to-play online games. They are usually expensive and grant purchasing players several months of advantage in the game, before progressively powerful items are made available. EU laws require that games publish the actual rates of acquiring items in the lootboxes; usually the most desired items have a 1-3% chance of being acquired.

An open primary is an election process that takes place before the general election and does not require voters to be affiliated with a political party. This vote would select the candidate to be placed on the ballot for general elections

For the purpose of this debate, "the judicialisation of politics" refers to the following phenomenon: iss

A natural person is a person of flesh and blood, a 'real' person. The term is used to distinguish people from companies (legal persons). Motion: THW

A Unity Ticket in the US presidential elections is a third-party campaign whereby 1 Republican and 1 Democrat become running mates (seeking the roles of President and Vice-President together) and contest the election for the White House against the respective nominees of the Democrat and Republican parties. In the past, John McCain (Republican) said he regretted not picking Joe Lieberman, the Democratic senator, to form a Unity Ticket run for the White House. Recently, there have been calls for Joe Biden (Dem) and Mitt Romney (Rep) to form a Unity Ticket for the 2020 presidential elections. Motion: THS

"The term "DINO" stands for "Democratic in Name Only"and refers to the members of US congress belonging to the Democratic Party who hold their seats in conservative areas and run on a platform which is seen to be more in line with Republican ideology. Motion: THB

Megacities are cities with a population of over 10 million people

In the status quo, financial institutions use the money deposited by customers (e.g. in a bank account) to make loans and investments. Deposits could alternatively be used to buy government-back safe assets (e.g. treasury bonds), which tend to have the lowest risk of default of all assets. In this debate, an "equity account" would be an account where the financial institution can use deposits for loans and investments. The value of an equity account fluctuates based on the value of its underlying assets. A "narrow banking" regulation is the requirement that all financial institutions back up all deposits with an equivalent value of government-back safe assets, unless customers choose to deposit their money in an "equity account".

A bail-in is rescuing a financial institution on the brink of failure by making its creditors and depositors take a loss on their holdings and write off debts of the company.

Deepfakes refer to manipulated videos, or other digital representations produced by sophisticated artificial intelligence, that yield fabricated images and sounds that appear to be real.