• We are a student-run committee, aimed at closing the toxic divide among students and young people, through interactive activities such as debate competitions and encouraged research of both mainstream and anti-establishment platforms.

  • Whilst the name Pan-American may be misleading, we began in Ireland, with name "Pan-American" being borrowed from the fast-paced atmosphere that American election debates have. Gubernatorial echoes the same purpose, though at a more local-level, with it referencing questions that are more directed at community issues than national. All of our committee members have backgrounds in Ireland, and our grassroots begin with Irish and European student networks.

  • No. The PAGPC is strictly non-partisan and deliberately designed to cover the entire spectrum of political thought—from democratic socialism and anti-establishment, to conservatism, liberalism, and independent platforms. Our committee runs a strict internal policy of ‘leave the personal politics at home’, and our involvement in the competition itself is primarily focused on making sure logistics runs smoothly.

    Winners are decided by the participants, and each political profile we create is tailored to ensure equal weight on the political spectrum.

  • The PAGPC operates as an ideological sandbox. We aim to cover the many perspectives of politics, though we do not design political profiles for candidates that promote hate speech, violence, or rhetoric intended to harm. While we ourselves do not promote such platforms, While we encourage participants to fearlessly debate highly controversial socio-economic policies to draw understanding of a broad variety of topics, we draw a strict line against platforms that incite hostility. Doing so would go against the civil understanding and discourse we promote.

  • Our competition is aimed to develop to be hosted in many countries and cities. However our first competition will be held in Dublin, Ireland.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Political profiles are given to applicants exactly 10 days before the competition is taking place. This allows participants to have sufficient time for researching their platform, practice an argument/defence, and immerse themself into ther candidate.

  • Our profiles that we send to participants contains 5 major parts.

    1. Political Party & Alignment. A brief overview of the candidate's political party and their relationship with it. This section acts as an umbrella for their core ideological values and history tied to it. Some details are intentionally left open so participants can fill in the blanks.

    2. Personal Background:An outline of the candidate's personal life, how they reached their current position, and their history leading up to the debate. This section highlights personal details that directly tie into their platform and campaign. When it comes to the candidate, this section is where their personality should be drawn from, and is usually the most condensed with information.

    3. Relevant Experience: Details from the candidate's life, such as college history, past occupations, or core values that are relevant to their campaign and ways to approach debates. Participants are highly encouraged to research these areas to back up their arguments with accurate factual context, whilst staying within the persona of their candidate.

    4. Platform Soundbites: Core policy positions translated into debate suggestions. Participants should draw heavily from this section during the debates to ensure their answers align perfectly with their profile's established platform. Adjudicators will be expecting participants to know this section when answering direct questions.

    5. Candidate Vulnerabilities: A breakdown of the candidate's personal and political weaknesses. Participants must study this section carefully to learn how to skillfully navigate hostile questions during the debate. While they recieve the entire profile 10 days before the competition, both debaters will be handed a copy of just this section of their opponent’s profile a few minutes in advance, so everyone has time to prepare questions on the floor.

  • We reccomend a dress code similar to that of real-life political debates, formal or semi-formal. However if your political profile presents itself as having an alternatively different dress code, we highly encourage you to go above and beyond for immersion.

  • No. The PAGPC runs the competition in a way that doesn’t allocate space for late registrations. We make political profiles for each applicant, and don’t make spares. Profiles take a long time to create, and we make them with the applicant in mind. Registrations close 10 days before the competition, and we don’t accept emails requesting a late entry.

  • Expect a friendly environment of fellow students with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. The PAGPC aims to have a welcoming atmosphere for participants. Just because people may differ in political ideologies, doesn’t mean friendliness is off the table!

    We also supply water and chairs for relaxing in when waiting for your debate. Also expect a special guest to attend, subject to location and time of the day.

  • We advise participants to bring a print-out of their political profile with them and a mobile device or laptop for the voting process of the competition. If you are unable to bring a physical copy of your profile, don’t worry! Committee members will have up to two spare copies of each profile. Having a physical copy is important, as we do not permit the use of phones for debaters.

Student/Participant Questions

  • No. We are an entirely independant academic student-run initiative run entirely by an undergraduate committee across Ireland.

  • A non-financial endorsement towards our initiative requires zero scheduling commitments, physical attendance, or legal backing. It simply permits us to display your name/logo and title of your choosing under our ‘ Endorsers’ section in our Committee page, as a supporter of youth civic literacy and student political participation.

  • Of course. Endorsers retain full autonomy of their name and title on our website. If an office or person requests to withdraw visible support, our committee will proceed with the request immediately.

  • No. We do not represent or align with any specific movement/platform or party in any way. We run a strict initiative of non-partisan involvement, nor do we promote any. Our initiative is to promote healthy debate practises for students.

  • No. The competition is completely free to participate in. We do not charge students for registering or taking part, as we aim to make our event as accessible for everyone as possible.

  • Our committee members are involved as volunteers, recieving no financial backing. Event locations are managed through educational venue partnerships.

    Any additional costs, such as the PAGPC website, winner certificates, water provided and paper handed to participants is done by the committee chairman Dan Moane.

  • We maintain a strict cross-party protocol, ensuring no single political group or person influences our candidate profiles or operational decisions. Any committee member who allows such instance to occur will voluntarily step back from involvement with our initiative.

Endorser Questions

As a commitee that aims to promote understanding in the complex world of politics, questions towards us are not uncommon.

If you, or someone on your behalf have any questions regarding us or our competition that isn’t shown here, send us an email or fill in our section below and we will get back to you. Our committee are happy to get in touch.

Common Questions

Other Important FAQ’s

  • The PAGPC only uses reputable venues or college campus buildings to ensure that location standards are both safe and reliable for students.

  • As we ourselves do not own the buildings we venue locations, the PAGPC aim to ensure every location we hold our debate competitions in has full access for students with mobility requirements.

  • Yes. As we host both secondary and college students, we encourage parents and spectators to attend our competition. However a member of our committee will monitor the entrance where our competition is taking place, to make sure spectators who appear have credible relation to at least one participating student due to safety reasons.

    Due to possible venue-related space, at times we may not have the capacity to allocate room for every spectator, though we try to accommodate everyone. This is in relation to venue requirements and fire safety concerns and is out of our control.

  • The PAGPC operates under a strict code of mutual respect. Standard rules of order are enforced by our committee and adjudicators, and any aggressive behavior or safety violations will result in immediate removal from the venue.

Venue-Related Queries

  • If something comes up before the competition is set to begin, please email our committee through the question sections of the website or the PAGPC email directly so we can alter our bracket system and competition process effectively.

  • We discourage the use of AI for production of debate material and research, however we cannot enforce it’s usage.

  • Yes. We encourage people from similar schools or colleges to apply for our competition, though we heavily encourage students to vote not from a personal relations perspective but instead based on a debater’s performance.

  • Our registration strictly operates as a one-person entry. If more than one person wishes to apply for the competition, we require 2 seperate registrations. If two people are on a single registration, we are unable to confirm them and will send an email informing of an ‘incomplete registration’.

  • While we cannot know if someone has registered another person on their behalf, we heavily encourage any registration done on someone else’s behalf to be consensual.

  • We encourage students to either revise a short speech or bring one with them to the competition. We assign each candidate 90 seconds - 2 minutes of speaking time at the beginning of each bracket debate. A good debate means a good percentage of the vote by the audience. As well, we encourage participants to tailor their opening speeches in alignment to their opposing candidate.

Registration/Debate Queries