Debate is a popular high school and college extracurricular activity where students work in teams of two to debate both sides of an issue. Debate is a unique form of rhetoric because it requires that debaters not only state their position but also explain why they believe this position is valid. This is called a case and involves the use of logical and persuasive arguments. Debate is often a competitive event and some research suggests that participation in debate leads to improved academic performance in subjects like math and reading, as well as positive social behaviors such as civic engagement and attendance at school.
Moreover, public debate can theoretically contribute to important democratic processes such as perspectival transmission and moral vetting, both of which are valued in Habermasian and Arendtian versions of democratic theory. This is especially true if debaters are encouraged to give reasons for their positions, something which debate moderators often do.
This article aims to unpack the value and function of public debate as a distinctive or characteristic constitutive feature of deliberative discourse. We do so by examining the unique rhetorical features of debate as a form of discursive practice and contrasting it with similar forms of discourse that are more monological in nature.
To do this, we surveyed participants on their self-reported experience of debate and asked them to describe the format and content of a specific debate they had seen or attended recently. We then compared their responses to a model that predicted the percentage of people who would report specific debate experiences.
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