I don’t think there has been much thinking about whether equally distributed political power should or should not be an end in itself.
On the current margin, that’s not really the question; the question is whether it’s an end-in-itself whose weight in the consequentialist calculus should be high enough to overcome other considerations. I don’t feel any qualms about adopting “no” as a working assumption to that question. I do think I value this to some extent, and I think it’s right and good for that to affect my views on rich-country policies where the stakes are relatively low, but in the presence of (actual or expected future) mass death or torture, as is the case in the cause areas EA prioritizes, I think these considerations have to give way. It’s not impossible that something could change my mind about this, but I don’t think it’s likely enough that I want to wait for further evidence before going out and doing things.
Of course, there are a bunch of ways that unequally distributed political power could cause problems big enough that EAs ought to worry about them, but now you’re no longer talking about it as an end-in-itself, but rather as a means to some other outcome.
On the current margin, that’s not really the question; the question is whether it’s an end-in-itself whose weight in the consequentialist calculus should be high enough to overcome other considerations. I don’t feel any qualms about adopting “no” as a working assumption to that question. I do think I value this to some extent, and I think it’s right and good for that to affect my views on rich-country policies where the stakes are relatively low, but in the presence of (actual or expected future) mass death or torture, as is the case in the cause areas EA prioritizes, I think these considerations have to give way. It’s not impossible that something could change my mind about this, but I don’t think it’s likely enough that I want to wait for further evidence before going out and doing things.
Of course, there are a bunch of ways that unequally distributed political power could cause problems big enough that EAs ought to worry about them, but now you’re no longer talking about it as an end-in-itself, but rather as a means to some other outcome.