WSDC 2022 – Motions [Updated]

Motions for The Netherlands Online WSDC 2022, also helpfully summarized here by idebate. All motions are impromptu except for R1, 3, 5 and 7. WSDC 2022 Motions Committee was Varshini Venkatesh, Luka Petrović, Julio Meyer, Kithmina Hewage, Njuguna Macharia, Huw Jones, and Tamkeen Nawab.

R1: This House believes that the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue should initiate the creation of a regional defence pact (similar to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) in the Asia Pacific Region.

R2E: This House prefers a world where instead of charging tuition fees to students upfront, universities collect a portion of their income upon graduation.

R2W: This House prefers industrial unions to workplace unions.
INFO: A workplace union is a union that only involves workers of one specific company. These unions tend to focus on directly negotiating with the management of that individual company. By contrast, an industrial union is a union with workers from an entire industry (E.g. service workers, educators, etc.). Industrial unions, more often, focus on trying to implement industry-wide standards for worker rights rather than negotiate with individual companies.

R3: This House would create a global carbon market.

R4E: This House would ban free-to-play games.
INFO: Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a sizeable portion or to the start of their gaming content without paying. However, players have to make in-game financial transactions to access competitive advantages (like power-ups, money, etc.), cosmetic changes (e.g.: a different type of character/look), or in some cases, to continue playing higher levels. This is distinct from games which require payment before using the game or service. It is also separate games which are entirely costless. Free-to-play games include, but are not limited to Fortnite, World of Tanks, Valorant, and League of Legends.

R4W: This House regrets the decline of the family as the dominant unit of organisation in society.

R5: This House would implement fairness doctrines on broadcast news media with significant audience reach.

R6E: This House prefers a world where a majority of political fiction is positive and optimistic (e.g. West Wing, Fahrenheit 451) to one where a majority is negative and pessimistic (e.g. House of Cards, 1984, Brave New World).

R6W: This House would require all elected officials to stand for a recall election if a significant minimum threshold of voters within their constituency demand it.

R7: This House prefers a world in which postcolonial African states had prioritised achieving economic and land reparations (e.g.: active land redistribution, quotas, cash transfer programmes) over enshrining civil and political rights (e.g.: rights to protest, vote, free speech, form associations, etc.).

R8E: This House believes that developing countries should privatise their State Owned Enterprises (such as airlines, utility companies like electricity, gas companies, etc.).
INFO: A State Owned Enterprise is a business enterprise that government have control over through ownership. While these may have public policy objectives, they are different to government entities that pursue purely non-financial objectives (e.g. public services).

R8W: This House would allow ex-convicts to apply to join the police force.

PDO1: This House would ban gated communities.
INFO: A gated community (or walled community) is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly controlled entrances and often characterised by a closed perimeter of walls and fences. Gated communities usually include various shared amenities.

PDO2: This House believes that the LGBTQIA+ movement should centre reinterpreting religions in its public agenda.

OF1: This House supports the rise of the use of cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT) in financial transactions.

OF2: This House prefers a world in which success and failure are seen as a consequence of random factors, rather than personal actions.

QF1: This House would overstate the impact of minority forces (Japanese American 442nd Battalion during WW2, Russia’s Women’s Battalion of Death during WW1, 4th Indian Infantry Division during WW2) in wars, even at the cost of historical accuracy.

QF2: This House prefers a world in which juries/judges can use a “not proven” verdict in criminal courts, in addition to “guilty” and “not guilty” verdicts.
INFO: Criminal trials typically end in one of two verdicts – “guilty” or “not guilty”. Under Scots law there exists a third verdict -“not proven”. This is typically used to indicate the jury or judge believe the defendant could potentially be guilty, but there is not sufficient evidence to convict. In a “not proven” verdict, the prosecutor has the option to retry a case, while this is not possible in a “not guilty” decision.)

SF1: This House prefers parenting models that adultify teenagers (i.e. giving them more responsibilities and autonomy, assuming higher capacity for independence) to those which emphasize their status and treatment as teenagers (i.e. refraining from giving them adult responsibilities, emphasizing they are legal minors).

SF2: This House opposes academic activism.
INFO: “Academic activism” refers to a phenomenon where academics take an explicitly political standpoint in their work and outside it with the aim of bringing about social change. Activist academics openly associate with different social and political groups or movements. The scope of academic activism entails being involved in policy debates, advising politicians, writing opinion pieces, etc. It also entails activism taking place within academic work, i.e. when performing research or teaching at the university. Examples include Judith Butler (American philosopher and gender theorist, and active in the Occupy movement), Taimur Rahman (Professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, and Secretary-General of the Mazdoor Kisan Party – a communist political party), Jordan Peterson (Now Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, and conservative public intellectual).

GF: This House would not allow any individual shareholders to own a controlling interest in large, publicly traded social media companies.
INFO: The term “controlling interest” refers to a situation that arises when a shareholder (or a group acting in kind) holds the majority of a company’s voting stock. Having a controlling interest gives the holding entity(s) significant influence over any corporate actions. Shareholders who have a controlling interest are often able to direct the course of a company and make key strategic and operational decisions.