Thank you, DeadFire27, and welcome to Dart.
IMPORTANT NOTE: "state" refers to a country and nation, not the US understanding of a state
FRAMEWORK
PRO: The military and the police are the most important agencies run the government
CON: The military and the police are not the most important agencies run the government
Description definitions from Cambridge:
- GOVERNMENT: the system used for controlling a country, city, or group of people:
- AGENCY: a government organization:
- IMPORTANT: necessary or of great value:
PRO will be arguing that the military and the police are the most necessary or valuable agencies run by the government.
CON will be arguing that this is not the case -- he thus needs to provide evidence that there exists another agency that is more necessary than the military and the police.
I wish CON good luck.
I will now proceed to the arguments phase.
NECESSITY
Military
There can be no doubt that the military is the most important part of a state. Without a military, no state can continue to exist, the only exceptions being small states protected by larger states. States without military devolve into anarchy or are invaded by other nations or both. A military is necessary to guard the borders and ensure other states don't act aggressively or in other ways that breach national sovereignty. In short, a military is necessary and every single state needs a military. This has been true throughout history and is true today. Even today nations need a military, as can be seen in the Middle East, Ukraine, Indian Pakistani border and so forth. As a matter of fact, the main reason for having a strong military is that you want to avoid conflict; a strong military makes war an option that is simply not affordable, thus conflict is avoided.
Police
The police are very important. They enforce the laws of a country; and without them, no state could effectively control its population. Collecting taxes to fund other agencies by the government is only possible if there is a police force punishing those that refuse to pay -- thus without the police, a state cannot have any agencies at all. More importantly, the police prevent the state from collapsing into anarchy; they prevent terrorism, violence, theft, crimes in general in addition to enforcing law and order.
Trust
The economy is based on trust -- you trust that a paper signed by a stranger means something -- that people will keep their promises and follow the agreed-upon contracts. In fact, the whole concept of civilisation is based upon trust. Apart from the unstable anarchy, the only stable alternative to civilisation is called tribalism, which is when you only trust a few fellow men in your tribe. The entire concept of civilisation, as opposed to tribalism, is that there is ONE authority that protects the population in return for funding and obedience. This one authority ensures that you can trust everyone -- because breaking a contract or breaking the law is punished and you can be sure most people would never ever do such a thing. Yet if this authority lacks power and the ability to enforce its rule then people cannot trust each other, because nobody ensures that this trust is trustworthy.
The alternative to military and police are anarchy, occupation (aka: NEW police and military) or tribalism -- every single one of which is severely undesirable and important to avoid.
VALUE
One way to measure value is to check how much people are willing to give for something. The police and military are expensive agencies to run, and there is no direct incentive for anyone to pay for them. Rather, it is society at large that needs the police and the military, and they are willing to pay a lot of money to keep these organizations running. Once again, all states have militaries and police forces, even poor countries; thus we can know that society is willing to give a lot in order to have working police and military.
Another way to measure value is to look at prioritization. If you look at history you would see that police and military, in one form or another, were always present in all of the great empires and all of the nations of Earth. From Rome to China, from the British Empire to the Aztech empire, every single one of them had a working force of violence comparable to the military and the police. Yet very few of these states had government-run hospitals, road building and welfare systems. It is a fact that all of these countries prioritized the military and the police over these other agencies by the government. Thus, the police and the military are of THE highest priority, thus are most valuable.
Yet a third way to measure value is to look at the need and the effect of something's absence. The effects of a lacking police force is violence, crime and anarchy, and the lack of a military causes foreign invasion and the restoration of law and order by another military and police. Thus, the military and police have a value equivalent to that between anarchy and civilisation, between prosperous economy and criminal degradation, between peace and loss in war. That is THE EXTREME VALUE OF POLICE AND MILITARY.
THE RESOLUTION IS AN AXIOM
A state is by definition a group and a territory with military and police. Thus, according to Max Weber, the military and police are the very defining feature of a state.
State monopoly on violence, in
political science and
sociology, the concept that the
state alone has the right to use or authorize the use of physical force. It is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of the modern state. [
britannica]
State monopoly on violence is a defining characteristic of a modern state. Without a monopoly on violence, an entity can hardly be called a state. As a logical result, we know that the monopoly on violence is the most important aspect of government rule. By virtue of being the sole means of achieving a monopoly on violence, we can comfortably say that the police and the military are a "defining characteristic" of a modern state. Unless CON denies the authority of Britannica, he must agree that the resolution is an axiom.
I have shown that a state by definition needs a military and a police force; that is because these agencies serve as the defining feature of a state as compared to any other territory.
SUMMARY
- The police and military are of extreme necessity
- They are the source and cause of economic trust, the pillar of civilisation
- Without them, society collapses
- The police and the military are of extreme value
- They are the top priority in terms of resource spending
- One cannot avoid these, because their lack leads to foreign invasion and re-institution of their presence
- No stable civilisation can exist without the police and the military.
- The alternative is tribalism, a severe degradation of society
- The very definition of a modern state includes the requirement of the monopoly of violence
- Any entity with a monopoly of violence is by definition a state (might be unrecognized)
- The police and the military are the very defining feature of a state -- thus only a state can run these agencies
CONCLUSION
The military and the police are indeed the most important agencies run by the government. I have fulfilled my BoP. The resolution holds.
For CON to deny this he must (1) deny the validity of the definition of state by Max Weber, (2) Prove that another agency is more important than the police and the military
Good luck, CON.
Thanks for voting
Thanks!!! I'll work on my length and sources.
Congrats on your first debate. I am impressed with your debating skills, especially after learning you are only 12; good job.
Thank you for voting
I'm not sure if he's good though. I'll tell you my thoughts after I finish my debate
no problem, i'm down to have a debate with him though
Don't mind him, he's just a friend I invited for a private debate.
Btw, we're doing "Video Games improve real life skills" I'm Con.
I think he accidently tagged you, sorry.
on what topic
for the debate what else?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
sorry what are you down for?
yeah ok im down for that
No problem, I’m up to debate anything.
Give me some time to improve, and I'll see about that.
Fair enough, fair enough, we can always have a rematch. I'm open to a one week debate.
Come on man, that was a 2 day debate time. I'm not sitting in front of this laptop 24/7.
I thought. you were to busy to debate...
Thanks for the positive output. I'll work on my length in the future.
Great idea, yet not so much perfectly executed. You would have benefited from a long argument with space to discuss implications as well as try to provide evidence of a society functioning without police -- that might have made your point more effective. By making the argument extremely short you are kind of wasting your round, as nothing is remembered or have any impact. Otherwise, you had a cool angle I hadn't expected.
I'd like opinions on my R2 argument.
I would argue that Social security is more important on the grounds that it costs more than the military.
The most important agencies that the government runs, that means the most important agency in general, not only in a specific state.
What do you think of my argument?
Do you mean the military and police are the most important agencies run BY the government, as opposed to some other agencies, such as EPA? I choose that one at random just as an example, and one which I find effectively too political in its current guise to be legitimate.