| 1. Solvency | solve the problem |
| 2. Harms | Show that there are bad things happening currently. Then show how you fix the harms without creating new ones |
| 3. Inherency | "by nature" - your plan, by its nature, solves the problems and the status quo does not. |
| 4. Topicality | on topic! |
| your plan matters - it is a big enough difference to make passing it worth while. |
"The affirmative team has the power of Fiat (Latin for "let it be so") to overcome such inherent barriers. Thus, the debate centers on whether the plan should happen rather than whether it will happen. Inherency is often not labelled [sp] in the 1AC but rather incorporated into advantages such that it becomes clear why the plan is an advantage over the status quo. The popularization of offense/defense in policy debate effectively squelched debate over inherency because the affirmative will usually win Inherency as a stock issue as long as there is a chance, however small, that the status quo will not solve the case. "(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_debate#Stock_issues)