There are clear moral objections against pursuing democratically unacceptable policies
What we mean with this sentence is that there are clear moral objections against governments pursuing [perhaps we should have said ‘instituting’] democratically unacceptable policies. We don’t mean to suggest that there’s anything wrong with citizens advocating for policies that are currently democratically unacceptable with the aim of making them democratically acceptable.
OK, thanks for clarifying! I guess there’s a bit of ambiguity surrounding talk of “the goal of longtermists in the political sphere”, so maybe worth distinguishing immediate policy goals that could be implemented right away, vs. external (e.g. “consciousness-raising”) advocacy aimed at shifting values.
It’s actually an interesting question when policymakers can reasonably go against public opinion. It doesn’t seem necessarily objectionable (e.g. to push climate protection measures that most voters are too selfish or short-sighted to want to pay for). There’s a reason we have representative rather than direct democracy. But the key thing about your definition of “democratically unacceptable” is that it specifies the policy could not possibly be maintained, which more naturally suggests a feasibility objection than a moral one, anyhow.
But I’m musing a bit far afield now. Thanks for the thought-provoking paper!
Thanks for the comment!
What we mean with this sentence is that there are clear moral objections against governments pursuing [perhaps we should have said ‘instituting’] democratically unacceptable policies. We don’t mean to suggest that there’s anything wrong with citizens advocating for policies that are currently democratically unacceptable with the aim of making them democratically acceptable.
OK, thanks for clarifying! I guess there’s a bit of ambiguity surrounding talk of “the goal of longtermists in the political sphere”, so maybe worth distinguishing immediate policy goals that could be implemented right away, vs. external (e.g. “consciousness-raising”) advocacy aimed at shifting values.
It’s actually an interesting question when policymakers can reasonably go against public opinion. It doesn’t seem necessarily objectionable (e.g. to push climate protection measures that most voters are too selfish or short-sighted to want to pay for). There’s a reason we have representative rather than direct democracy. But the key thing about your definition of “democratically unacceptable” is that it specifies the policy could not possibly be maintained, which more naturally suggests a feasibility objection than a moral one, anyhow.
But I’m musing a bit far afield now. Thanks for the thought-provoking paper!