My impression is also that the track record of so-called “fair processes” is really spotty for the reasons you note here—it’s hard to actually make them inclusive, they’re incredibly costly and burdensome, they often serve as a cover for NGOs/multilaterals doing what they wanted to do anyways, etc.
I just think there is a more charitable case to be made for democratizing funding decisions than is made in this post, and also a much broader range of implementation strategies that could be considered. (I’m personally a fan of surveying potential beneficiaries on their priorities, as others have suggested.) I worry about EA becoming an echo chamber, so think it’s worth figuring out why multiple large fields (and, I think, most academics who work on these issues) have reached different conclusions than EA about this.
Thanks for highlighting this!
My impression is also that the track record of so-called “fair processes” is really spotty for the reasons you note here—it’s hard to actually make them inclusive, they’re incredibly costly and burdensome, they often serve as a cover for NGOs/multilaterals doing what they wanted to do anyways, etc.
I just think there is a more charitable case to be made for democratizing funding decisions than is made in this post, and also a much broader range of implementation strategies that could be considered. (I’m personally a fan of surveying potential beneficiaries on their priorities, as others have suggested.) I worry about EA becoming an echo chamber, so think it’s worth figuring out why multiple large fields (and, I think, most academics who work on these issues) have reached different conclusions than EA about this.