The phrase "a widespread debate" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a discussion or argument that is occurring broadly across a community, society, or among various groups.
Example: "The issue of climate change has sparked a widespread debate among scientists, policymakers, and the public."
Alternatives: "a broad discussion" or "a significant discourse".
In the process, it has reignited a widespread debate about how bright a light to shine on one of the most secretive corners of the criminal justice system.
Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ also sparked a widespread debate over the use of allegedly anti-Semitic imagery in its portrayal of the Crucifixion.
It also started a widespread debate about who would win the Nobel Prize, if the work panned out, which it has.
The film triggered a widespread debate about unsimulated sex on screen, and later won the Berlin film festival's Golden Bear award.
Japanese readers were enraptured and more than a little wistful, and the book sparked a widespread debate within Japan over the Japanese educational system.
Opera played an important role in a widespread debate over luxury that pervaded Western Europe, an issue that comprised not only changing economics but paradigmatic shifts in social behavior.
There is a serious and widespread debate, however, about whether a humanistic approach to doctoring can be taught, or whether it should be a mandatory part of medical education.
The extent to which nuclear energy can be a feasible energy option has re-emerged as a subject of widespread debate following the Fukushima accident in Japan.
Dr. Elliot Pellman, whose qualifications as the longtime chairman of the N.F.L.'s research committee on concussions have been a subject of widespread debate, resigned as chairman of the committee on Monday.
Other possible indicators of climate change - ice melt, ocean temperatures and extreme weather events - are a matter of widespread debate in which the science most certainly is not "settled".
But she acknowledged that the materials were also a response to the widespread debate about test preparation.
