You’re correct that the EA Forum isn’t as democratic as “one person one vote”. However, it is one of the more democratic institutions in EA, so provides evidence re: whether moving in a more democratic direction would’ve helped.
I’d be interested if people can link any FTX criticism on reddit/Facebook prior to the recent crisis to see how that went. In any case, “one person one vote” is tricky for EA because it’s unclear who counts as a “citizen”. If we start deciding grant applications on the basis of reddit upvotes or Facebook likes, that creates a cash incentive for vote brigades.
you can see who likes things on Facebook, and reddit isn’t especially used. You can actually see democratic voting on the tree of tags (weird that I can’t find the same option for the forum itself...), but you still run into the issue that people might upvote/downvote posts that have more upvotes in general.
I think most democratic systems don’t work that way—it’s not that people vote on every single decision; democratic systems are usually representative democracies where people can try to convince others that they would be responsible policymakers, and where these policymakers then are subject to accountability and checks and balances. Of course, in an unrestricted democracy you could also elect people who would then become dictators, but that just says that you also need democrats for a democracy, and that you may first need fundamental decisions about structures.
Fair enough!
You’re correct that the EA Forum isn’t as democratic as “one person one vote”. However, it is one of the more democratic institutions in EA, so provides evidence re: whether moving in a more democratic direction would’ve helped.
I’d be interested if people can link any FTX criticism on reddit/Facebook prior to the recent crisis to see how that went. In any case, “one person one vote” is tricky for EA because it’s unclear who counts as a “citizen”. If we start deciding grant applications on the basis of reddit upvotes or Facebook likes, that creates a cash incentive for vote brigades.
you can see who likes things on Facebook, and reddit isn’t especially used. You can actually see democratic voting on the tree of tags (weird that I can’t find the same option for the forum itself...), but you still run into the issue that people might upvote/downvote posts that have more upvotes in general.
I think most democratic systems don’t work that way—it’s not that people vote on every single decision; democratic systems are usually representative democracies where people can try to convince others that they would be responsible policymakers, and where these policymakers then are subject to accountability and checks and balances. Of course, in an unrestricted democracy you could also elect people who would then become dictators, but that just says that you also need democrats for a democracy, and that you may first need fundamental decisions about structures.