Plan-minusCounterplan(Counterplans)

Plan- (pronounced "plan minus") counterplans, sometimes called exclusion counterplans, are counterplans which are identical to case except for excluding one or more plan mandates. For example, if the plan is "Institute policy X everywhere in America", the counterplan "Institute policy X everywhere in America except Oklahoma" is an exclusion counterplan.

Plan- CPs have a perfect competition story if there is a disadvantage or kriticism associated with the excluded area. They then compete through net-benefits. If there is no disadvantage/kritik or if the disadvantage/kritik is mooted, then the perm "Do plan" will always succeed against a plan- counterplan, because the plan structurally already includes 100% of its own mandates and 100% of the plan- CP mandates and nothing else.

Strategically, plan- CPs are a good way to oppose plans which are of a vastly larger scope than the disadvantage which you have, if that disadvantage would be (for a smaller plan) a very compelling position. For example, if you have an incredible politics scenario specific to Pennsylvania (perhaps regarding Santorum's re-election prospects), it can make sense to just knock Pennsylvania out of the affected area of plan and then run your disadvantage, assuming the disadvantage outweighs the marginal gain in advantages from including Pennsylvania in plan. This can be especially strategically advantageous for plans which cannot specify specific reasons why their plan would be a good idea in a specific region of operation.

Another popular use of plan- CPs is when people run a poorly considered multi-plank plan. For example, on the resolution "This House believes that two Chinas are better than one", suppose a particular plan was to have the United States advocate for Taiwan's inclusion in all multi-national organizations it was a member of, appoint a full ambassador to Taiwan, and recognize Taiwanese independence. Of these three independent policies which are being clustered together by plan, clearly the third has the largest disadvantage ground available. The way to unbundle the plan is to run a plan- CP of "do the first two mandates but not the third", and then run all of your China scenarios as disadvantages to the third plank. If they happen to hit planks one and two a little, thats irrelevent, as the plan- CP cannot be any worse than plan in linking to them on the basis of those two planks alone.