This is a great point, Alexander. I suspect some people, like ConcernedEAs, believe the specific ideas are superior in some way to what we do now, and it’s just convenient to give them a broad label like “democratizing”. (At Asana, we’re similarly “democratizing” project management!)
Others seem to believe democracy is intrinsically superior to other forms of governance; I’m quite skeptical of that, though agree with tylermjohn that it is often the best way to avoid specific kinds of abuse and coercion. Perhaps in our context there might be more specific solutions along those lines, like an appeals board for COI or retaliation claims. The formal power might still lie with OP, but we would have strong soft reasons for wanting to defer.
In the meantime, I think the forum serves that role, and from my POV we seem reasonably responsive to it? Esp. the folks with high karma.
I probably should have been clearer in my first comment that my interest in democratizing the decisions more was quite selfish: I don’t like having the responsibility, even when I’m largely deferring it to you (which itself is a decision).
Others seem to believe democracy is intrinsically superior to other forms of governance; I’m quite skeptical of that, though agree with tylermjohn that it is often the best way to avoid specific kinds of abuse and coercion.
My guess is that the current non-democratic EA institutions have serious flaws, and democratic replacement institutions would have even more serious flaws, and it’s still worth trying the democratic institutions (in parallel to the current ones) because 2 flawed structures are better than 1. (For example, because the democratic institutions fund important critical work that the current institutions do not.)
I think this likely depends on who else is funding work in a given area, and what the other funders’ flaws/blind spots are. For instance, if the democratic EA alternative has many of the same flaws/blind spots of larger funders in a cause area, diverting resources from current EA efforts would likely lead to worse outcomes in the cause area as a whole.
This is a great point, Alexander. I suspect some people, like ConcernedEAs, believe the specific ideas are superior in some way to what we do now, and it’s just convenient to give them a broad label like “democratizing”. (At Asana, we’re similarly “democratizing” project management!)
Others seem to believe democracy is intrinsically superior to other forms of governance; I’m quite skeptical of that, though agree with tylermjohn that it is often the best way to avoid specific kinds of abuse and coercion. Perhaps in our context there might be more specific solutions along those lines, like an appeals board for COI or retaliation claims. The formal power might still lie with OP, but we would have strong soft reasons for wanting to defer.
In the meantime, I think the forum serves that role, and from my POV we seem reasonably responsive to it? Esp. the folks with high karma.
I probably should have been clearer in my first comment that my interest in democratizing the decisions more was quite selfish: I don’t like having the responsibility, even when I’m largely deferring it to you (which itself is a decision).
My guess is that the current non-democratic EA institutions have serious flaws, and democratic replacement institutions would have even more serious flaws, and it’s still worth trying the democratic institutions (in parallel to the current ones) because 2 flawed structures are better than 1. (For example, because the democratic institutions fund important critical work that the current institutions do not.)
I think this likely depends on who else is funding work in a given area, and what the other funders’ flaws/blind spots are. For instance, if the democratic EA alternative has many of the same flaws/blind spots of larger funders in a cause area, diverting resources from current EA efforts would likely lead to worse outcomes in the cause area as a whole.