Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Table of Contents
Complete Negative Flex Case....................................................................................................................1
Values:..........................................................................................................................................2
Excellence...........................................................................................................................2
Resolutional Analysis...................................................................................................................3
Contentions..................................................................................................................................4
Innovation...........................................................................................................................4
Competition → Corruption.................................................................................................4
Motivation – Duty..............................................................................................................4
Efficiency............................................................................................................................5
Strength...............................................................................................................................5
Governmental cooperation necessary for human rights.....................................................5
Bipartisan Politics can solve for human rights...................................................................6
Separation of powers is cooperative...................................................................................6
NR Blocks:............................................................................................................................................7
Innovation....................................................................................................................................7
Corruption from Competition......................................................................................................9
Strength......................................................................................................................................10
Democracy.................................................................................................................................11
Bipartisanship.............................................................................................................................11
Values:
Excellence
[Basic Definition] Excellence is defined as “the state of possessing good qualities in an eminent
degree” - Webster's New International Dictionary, 3rd Edition, Unabridged. In the context of the
resolution, we are to compare competition and cooperation to determine which one does more to make
us excellent, which one maximizes our good qualities.
[Resolutionality] Excellence is the highest goal in today’s debate round because it is the goal the
resolution is based on. You as the judge are not casting a ballot based on whether you prefer
competition or cooperation. The resolution states we must examine which is better in light of which
method best leads to excellence. Excellence is key in today’s debate round and should be the focus
and goal of the debate.
[Best Value] Excellence is the highest value in today's debate round because of its universal applicability.
We want to be excellent not only in [opponents value], but in all areas of our life. Therefore, we should
compare competition and cooperation on their ability to make things better overall, and not just in one
area. The value of excellence is the best way to express this, and should be the highest value in today's
debate.
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Resolutional Analysis
+X (Motivation not means)
Do you want to find a cure for cancer?
Have you found a cure for cancer?
So even though you are motvated to find a cure for cancer, you still hasn't gotten it done?
A means is a way of getting something done, correct?
Competition and cooperation are both tools we can use to further our goals. We should compare
various characterestics of competition and cooperation to see which is a better tool.
To start off, I'd like to take a look at the resolution, and just clarify what it is we need to prove in this
debate. The resolution asks which is a superior means of achieving excellence, competition or
cooperation. I'm going to show that cooperation is a better and more useful tool, or means, toward that
end, by presenting several of the unique benefits of cooperation. In each of my examples, I'll show that
when the amount of cooperation is increased, more excellence is achieved, concluding that cooperation
is superior to competition as a means of achieving excellence.
NR
An environment is not a means. In these examples, competition is the environment in which people are
acting, but it is not the forces of competition, the striving against one another that produces excellence,
it is the cooperative forces.
Contentions
Innovation
In 2004, Dutch economists Rene Belderbos, Martin Carree and Boris Lokshin conducted a study of
over 6,000 firms in fields relating to technology, to determine the role cooperation played in
innovation. Their results are as follows <quote>"[C]ooperation [is] instrumental in creating and
bringing to market radical innovations, generating sales of products that are novel to the market, and
improving the performance of firms. The findings provide qualified support for the notion that
cooperating firms are engaged in higher level innovative activities. This holds unequivocally for firms
collaborating with universities and competitors"1.</quote>
These findings provide empirical support for the idea that cooperation, which fosters the sharing of
ideas, technology, and resources, best allows for innovation to happen. Putting more minds, and more
ideas, together, helps us innovate. Competition, however, encourages secrecy, thus hindering such
innovation.
[136]
Competition → Corruption
[Despite it's benefits] competition has a serious side effect which we should not overlook. In the race
to be the first, the best, the cheapest, competitors will often violate principles of ethics. If a task can be
accomplished better in an unethical way, and that benefit is greater than the cost, why not?
Examples of this are seen most prominently in developing countries, where employees, including
children, often work long hours in sweatshops and bribery of government officials is rampant.
Harvard economics professor Andrei Shleifer writes2 <quote>"[C]orruption spreads when markets are
competitive. When a firm's competitor can reduce his taxes through corruption, he can pass on his
savings to consumers. In a competitive market, then, every firm must itself pay bribes or go out of
business. The keener is the competition, the higher is the pressure to reduce costs, and the more
pervasive is corruption."</quote> Any benefit of competition, then, must be weighed against this cost.
[156]
Motivation – Duty
We should value cooperation because it infuses us with a sense of duty, motivating us to do better and
become excellent. When we work with others we develop relationships with them, and desire to
succeed not only for our own benefit, but for that of everyone in the group. This is particularly evident
in athletes participating in team sports. For example, Ohio State quarterback Terrel Pryor, when asked
why he put in so much off season training after an injury said, because <quote>“I don't want to let my
1Rene Belderbos, Martin Carree, Boris Lokshin, "Cooperative R&D and firm performance", Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics, Naamsestraat 69, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Universiteit Maastricht,
The Netherlands, 2 October 2004
2Andrei Shleifer (*Department of Economics, Harvard University), "Does Competition Destroy Ethical Behavior?", The
American Economic Review, Vol. 94, No. 2, January 3-5, 2004 (May, 2004), pp. 414-418, American Economic Association,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3592920
Accessed: 31/03/2010 22:08
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team down.”3 </quote> One of the most powerful ways to be motivated to become better is through the
sense of duty cooperation with others inspires.
Efficiency
...is a benefit of cooperation. When people work together, they can work on different tasks at the same
time, and can use their different skills to work much faster. The best example of this is the line
assembly process. Developed by the Ford Motor company between 1908 and 1915, the assembly line
changed the way cars were built. Instead of taking each step one-at-a-time on a singly vehicle, the
assembly line allowed all the different stages of production to take place simultaneously on different
cars. This meant that many more vehicles could be produced, and at far lower prices. Specifically
because of a more cooperative approach to car manufacturing.
[110]
Strength
In 1959 American journalist and author on racial equality John Howard Griffin was asked what the
biggest problem facing African Americans was. His response: “Lack of unity.”4
Well, a few years later, with the start of the civil rights movement, African Americans had found that
unity. By cooperatively organizing sit-ins, boycotts, and other protests, those fighting for civil rights
achieved the strength necessary to succeed. Without a cooperative, unified attack on segregation, the
protesters clearly would have failed. This is a fundamental benefit of cooperation, “Unity is strength”,
(to quote Aesop) and strength allows us to achieve excellence.
[102]
[↓Liberty/Human Rights specific contentions]
3Tim May (Journalist), “Ohio State football: Spring's no break”, The Columbus Dispatch, Sunday, March 29, 2009
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2009/03/29/osufb_3-29.ART_ART_03-29-09_C3_UFDCIO4.html
4“What do you see as our biggest problem Mr. Griffin?" Mr. Gayle asked
“Lack of unity.”
“That’s it,” said the elderly man who ran the cafe. “Until we as a race can learn to rise together, we’ll never get
anywhere. That’s our trouble. We work against one another instead of together.
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6{12} Contentions
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NR Blocks:
Innovation
Quotes:
“Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be
given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit
is due to others rather than to myself.” ~ Alexander Graham Bell
"If I have seen far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants" ~ Sir Isaac Newton
[Socrates speaking]...I think that Homer was very right in saying that "When two go together, one sees
before the other," for all men who have a companion are readier in deed, word, or thought; but if a man
"Sees a thing when he is alone," he goes about straightway seeking until he finds someone to whom he
may show his discoveries, and who may confirm him in them ~Plato, Protagoras 348
{note: vertical cooperation means between firms and buyers, or non-competing firms. horizontal
means between firms}
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In both equations, R&D cooperation exhibits a significant positive impact on the propensity to
innovate. R&D cooperation thus appears to be efficient in terms of innovation.
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Rene Belderbos, Martin Carree, Boris Lokshin, "Cooperative R&D and firm performance", Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics, Naamsestraat 69, B-3000 Leuven,
Belgium, Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2 October 2004
"The results confirm a major heterogeneity in the rationales and goals of R&D cooperation, with
competitor and supplier cooperation focused on incremental innovations improving the
productivity performance of firms, while university cooperation and again competitor
cooperation are instrumental in creating and bringing to market radical innovations, generating
sales of products that are novel to the market, and hence improving the growth performance of
firms (Klomp and Van Leeuwen, 2001). The findings provide qualified support for the notion
that cooperating firms are generally engaged in higher level innovative activities (Tether, 2002).
This holds unequivocally for firms collaborating with universities (e.g. to get access to basic
research) and competitors (to allow R&D for risky projects), but not for firms engaged in
‘vertical cooperation’ with suppliers and customers. If the latter types of cooperation are also
partly focused on more ‘radical’ innovations, than there is no evidence in our analysis that these
efforts have an overall impact improving firms’ performance in bringing novel products to the
market."
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Strength
A2: they used non-cooperation: .
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the
penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in
reality expressing the highest respect for the law.” - Martin Luther King, Jr., answer of a reporter's
question while in prison.
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Strength Extenstion
The Father and His Sons ~ Aesop's fables
A FATHER had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves. When he failed
to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration of the evils
of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had
done so, he placed the faggot into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it
in pieces. They tried with all their strength, and were not able to do it. He next opened the faggot, took
the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons' hands, upon which they broke them
easily. He then addressed them in these words: "My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist
each other, you will be as this faggot, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are
divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks."
Democracy
Democracy cooperative
Sanford A. Lakoff, “Democracy”. (Boulder, CO: Westview Publishing, 1996), 166,
http://books.google.com/books?id=U7ANGzb2O-
wC&pg=PA166&lpg=PA166&dq=democracy+requires+cooperation&source=bl&ots=sJzeaN67zs&s
ig=nz4WN8rgr9K9t70yqkVlzPnPf7M&hl=en&ei=sHlXSu7uK8WktwfGioHeCg&sa=X&oi=book_resu
lt&ct=result&resnum=5.
Democracy “requires cooperation in the pursuit of social goals,” says Sanford Lakoff of Harvard
University.
262 Million killed by nondemocratic governments in 20th century.
R.J. Rummel, “Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War.” The University of Hawaii.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/.
According to R. J. Rummel (Rudolph Joseph Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the
University of Hawaii), 262,000,000 people were killed in the 20th century at the hands of their own
government.
Fewer than 2% of wars are between democracies.
R.J. Rummel, “Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War.” The University of Hawaii.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/.
Between 1816 and 1991, there were a total of 353 wars between countries, yet fewer than 2% of these
wars occurred between two democracies. That means almost no democracies have gone to war against
each other in the past 175 years, a testament to the correspondence between democracy and human
rights.
Bipartisanship
Details on the Civil Rights Act.
Notes from taking an American history course this year
The 1964 Civil Rights act, the legislation that finally outlawed racial segregation and gave equal voting
rights to minorities, was introduced by President John F. Kennedy in June of 1963. It passed the House
[of Representatives] in February of '64, but then was filibustered by Democratic Senators Robert Byrd
and Richard Russel, from West Virginia and Georgia, respectively. For 54 days the bill was
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filibustered. It took Senators' Everett Dirksen (Republican from Illinois), Thomas Kuchel (Republican
from California), Hubert Humphrey (Democrat from Minnesota), and Mike Mansfield (Democrat from
Montana) bipartisan cooperation on a new bill to get passed the filibuster and pass civil rights
legislation.
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