This is pretty far afield from what the post is about, but to me the most natural reason why someone might say EA rejects democracy are neither of the two interpretations you mentioned, but rather that EAs are technocrats suspicious of democracy, to quote Rob Reich:
In my experience, effective altruists are unabashed technocrats. They seek to maximize good in the world, and they deploy the best evidence they can marshal to identify the mechanisms by which one can pursue that goal. Effective altruists might locate instrumental value in politics—to the extent that political engagement is necessary to promote good—but not, I suspect, intrinsic value.
Plato identified the best city as that in which philosophers were the rulers. Effective altruists see the best state of affairs, I think, as that in which good-maximizing technocrats are in charge. Perhaps it is possible to call this a politics: technocracy.
But this politics is suspicious of, or rejects, the form of politics to which most people attach enormous value: democracy. Would effective altruists attach any independent value to democracy? Given the chance to craft social and political arrangements from scratch, would effective altruists select democratic rather than technocratic rule? I suspect the answer is no, and to that extent, effective altruism is in tension with the commonplace philosophy that identifies in democracy a powerful normative force.
I upvoted since I also thought Ben’s claims in that section was too strong.
That said, I think “suspicious of democracy” seems fairly extreme as a way to describe it. I think some EAs are healthily skeptical that democracy is the best possible governance mechanism (or more controversially, best realistically attainable governance mechanisms).
I would certainly consider myself one of them. I think we should generally have a healthy degree of skepticism towards our existing institutions, and I don’t see clear reasons why we should privilege the “democracy” hypothesis over technocracy or more futuristic setups, other than general conservatism (“Chesterton’s fence”) preferences/heuristics. In contrast, we have substantially more evidence for the benefits of democracies over monarchies or other autocratic systems.
I do think the track record where so-called elite people overestimate the efficiency gains of less free systems is suboptimal (LOL at the 1950s economists who thought that the Soviet Union will be more productive than the US). But I don’t think bias arguments should be dominant.
This is pretty far afield from what the post is about, but to me the most natural reason why someone might say EA rejects democracy are neither of the two interpretations you mentioned, but rather that EAs are technocrats suspicious of democracy, to quote Rob Reich:
I upvoted since I also thought Ben’s claims in that section was too strong.
That said, I think “suspicious of democracy” seems fairly extreme as a way to describe it. I think some EAs are healthily skeptical that democracy is the best possible governance mechanism (or more controversially, best realistically attainable governance mechanisms).
I would certainly consider myself one of them. I think we should generally have a healthy degree of skepticism towards our existing institutions, and I don’t see clear reasons why we should privilege the “democracy” hypothesis over technocracy or more futuristic setups, other than general conservatism (“Chesterton’s fence”) preferences/heuristics. In contrast, we have substantially more evidence for the benefits of democracies over monarchies or other autocratic systems.
I do think the track record where so-called elite people overestimate the efficiency gains of less free systems is suboptimal (LOL at the 1950s economists who thought that the Soviet Union will be more productive than the US). But I don’t think bias arguments should be dominant.