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Sys­temic change

TagLast edit: Jul 14, 2022, 8:54 PM by Leo

Systemic change is change relating to practices or institutions established as normative or customary throughout a political, social, or economic system.

Some critics of effective altruism allege that its proponents have failed to engage with systemic change.[1] Whether they are right or not depends on what is meant by the term. Members of the community are working on political issues within areas such as macroeconomic policy, immigration reform and land use reform.[2] However, work on certain types of “radical” change, such as attempts to overthrow capitalism or abolish private property, are much less common.[3]

Further reading

Effective Altruism (2016) Does effective altruism neglect systemic change?, in ‘Frequently asked questions and common objections’, Effective Altruism.
More information on this topic, including a list of articles arguing that effective altruists neglect “systemic change”.

Open Philanthropy (2021) Policy, in ‘Cause reports’, Open Philanthropy.
The Open Philanthropy Project works on many projects seeking to bring about systemic change.

Shulman, Carl (2019) Some personal thoughts on EA and systemic change, Effective Altruism Forum, September 26.

Wiblin, Robert (2015) Effective altruists love systemic change, 80,000 Hours, July 8.
Examples of members of the effective altruism community working on systemic change.

Related entries

electoral reform | immigration reform | improving institutional decision-making | land use reform | longtermist institutional reform | macroeconomic policy | policy

  1. ^

    Srinivasan, Amia (2015) Stop the robot apocalypse, London Review of Books, vol. 37, pp. 1–10.

  2. ^

    Wiblin, Robert (2015) Effective altruists love systemic change, 80,000 Hours, July 8.

  3. ^

    Chappell, Richard Yetter (2016) Effective altruism, radical politics and radical philanthropy, Philosophy, et Cetera, April 20.

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111 points
5 comments11 min readEA link

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Holden KarnofskyNov 30, 2021, 9:11 PM
94 points
32 comments18 min readEA link

New Book: “Rea­soned Poli­tics” + Why I have writ­ten a book about politics

Magnus VindingMar 3, 2022, 11:31 AM
95 points
9 comments5 min readEA link

An en­tire cat­e­gory of risks is un­der­val­ued by EA [Sum­mary of pre­vi­ous fo­rum post]

Richard RSep 5, 2022, 3:07 PM
76 points
5 comments5 min readEA link

Land re­dis­tri­bu­tion, re­vis­ited.

dEAsignAug 15, 2023, 7:28 AM
13 points
2 comments4 min readEA link

Pro­mot­ing com­pas­sion­ate longtermism

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117 points
5 comments12 min readEA link

An­i­mal Welfare is now en­shrined in the Bel­gian Constitution

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95 points
9 comments10 min readEA link

Sys­temic Cas­cad­ing Risks: Rele­vance in Longter­mism & Value Lock-In

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56 points
10 comments16 min readEA link

Sum­mary of my aca­demic pa­per “Effec­tive Altru­ism and Sys­temic Change”

antonin_broiSep 26, 2019, 1:55 PM
82 points
5 comments4 min readEA link

Some per­sonal thoughts on EA and sys­temic change

CarlShulmanSep 26, 2019, 9:40 PM
199 points
17 comments6 min readEA link

Effec­tive al­tru­ists love sys­temic change

Robert_WiblinJul 8, 2015, 7:00 AM
54 points
2 comments6 min readEA link
(80000hours.org)

Ac­tivism and sys­temic change

HauksJul 6, 2023, 10:07 AM
1 point
0 comments1 min readEA link

Effec­tive al­tru­ism’s billion­aires aren’t taxed enough. But they’re try­ing.

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56 points
51 comments1 min readEA link
(www.vox.com)

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4 points
0 comments6 min readEA link

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123 points
20 comments2 min readEA link
(www.newstatesman.com)

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150 points
18 comments4 min readEA link

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61 points
2 comments8 min readEA link

EA and the United Nations

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38 points
11 comments8 min readEA link

[Question] Has any­thing in the EA global health sphere changed since the cri­tiques of “ran­domista de­vel­op­ment” 1-2 years ago?

Max GörlitzDec 2, 2021, 12:14 PM
51 points
7 comments1 min readEA link

An in­ner de­bate on risk aver­sion and sys­temic change

AndrewDorisFeb 2, 2021, 10:31 PM
18 points
6 comments9 min readEA link

Don’t we need poli­ti­cal ac­tion rather than char­ity?

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11 points
3 comments2 min readEA link
(www.givingwhatwecan.org)

H-Day, a case study in co­or­di­nated change

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14 points
0 comments1 min readEA link
(en.wikipedia.org)

Public tran­sit ad­vo­cacy as an effec­tive cause area

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19 points
5 comments2 min readEA link
(sunyshore.substack.com)

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Vasco Grilo🔸Jul 30, 2024, 4:28 PM
17 points
1 comment20 min readEA link
(ericneyman.wordpress.com)

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brb243Jan 7, 2022, 10:52 PM
5 points
0 comments4 min readEA link

My new ar­ti­cle on EA and the sys­temic change objection

tdsymeFeb 15, 2019, 6:27 PM
11 points
21 comments1 min readEA link

[Question] What are some re­spon­si­bil­ity bun­dle bar­gains for medium-sized en­ter­prises?

brb243Jan 10, 2022, 7:38 PM
2 points
0 comments1 min readEA link

[Question] Should Founders Pledge sup­port only the non-con­scious as­set trans­fer arm of Band­han’s Tar­get­ing the Hard­core Poor poverty grad­u­a­tion pro­gram?

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8 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

Is there any work on how best to pro­tect young /​ emerg­ing democ­ra­cies from be­com­ing au­toc­ra­cies?

freedomandutilityOct 25, 2021, 12:04 PM
13 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

Geopoli­ti­cal Hazards of Sea-Steading

Anthony RepettoDec 6, 2021, 2:56 AM
4 points
0 comments3 min readEA link

Effec­tive means to com­bat autocracies

Junius BrutusAug 28, 2022, 5:35 PM
32 points
2 comments5 min readEA link

Lo­cal sys­temic change loop

brb243Apr 11, 2022, 5:52 PM
3 points
0 comments1 min readEA link

Lev­er­ag­ing fi­nance to in­crease re­silience to GCRs

PhilCFeb 17, 2022, 6:42 AM
24 points
9 comments11 min readEA link

Ve­toc­racy re­duc­tion and other co­or­di­na­tion prob­lems as po­ten­tial cause areas

John_MyersFeb 6, 2022, 6:21 PM
29 points
2 comments17 min readEA link

Could I have some more sys­temic change, please, sir?

MichaelPlantJan 22, 2018, 4:26 PM
24 points
23 comments4 min readEA link

‘Where are your rev­olu­tion­ar­ies?’ Mak­ing EA con­ge­nial to the so­cial jus­tice war­rior.

MeredithLestonSep 21, 2022, 8:46 AM
6 points
6 comments4 min readEA link

[Question] What are the char­i­ties that pro­mote sys­temic poli­ti­cal change?

maximumpeachesDec 22, 2021, 8:19 PM
9 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

Bring­ing Out The Best In Humanity

Marc WongOct 5, 2022, 3:20 PM
3 points
1 comment16 min readEA link

The case for Green Growth skep­ti­cism and GDP agnosticism

ErolaPonsAug 13, 2022, 6:36 PM
54 points
24 comments14 min readEA link

[Question] Have there been any qual­ity eval­u­a­tions of the im­pacts of regime change?

steviegMar 23, 2022, 1:58 PM
10 points
8 comments1 min readEA link

Five recom­men­da­tions for bet­ter poli­ti­cal discourse

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31 points
1 comment7 min readEA link
(centerforreducingsuffering.org)

[Question] What are some cost-effec­tive co-in­ter­ven­tions (and al­ter­na­tives) to bed­net dis­bur­sal?

brb243Jan 7, 2022, 10:53 PM
4 points
0 comments2 min readEA link

Ex­plor­ing Co­op­er­a­tion: The Path to Utopia

DavidmanheimDec 25, 2024, 6:31 PM
10 points
0 comments14 min readEA link
(exploringcooperation.substack.com)

[Question] Should the Aravind Eye Care Sys­tem be funded in lieu of The Fred Hol­lows Foun­da­tion?

brb243Jan 11, 2022, 9:00 PM
5 points
4 comments1 min readEA link

Should UBI be a top pri­or­ity for longter­mism?

Michael SimmJan 8, 2023, 12:45 PM
2 points
33 comments4 min readEA link

De­moc­ra­tiz­ing the work­place as a cause area

Bob Jacobs 🔸Nov 26, 2022, 6:31 PM
38 points
19 comments8 min readEA link

Effec­tive Altru­ism De­con­fu­sion, Part 2: Causes, Philos­o­phy, and So­cial Con­straints

DavidmanheimFeb 5, 2023, 10:13 AM
44 points
4 comments10 min readEA link

No Silver Bul­let Solu­tions for the Were­wolf Crisis

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333 points
10 comments7 min readEA link
(progressandpoverty.substack.com)

Are sys­tems change non­prof­its effec­tive? A shal­low es­ti­mate of the effi­cacy of non­profit le­gal work

Sam BattisJun 30, 2023, 4:07 PM
24 points
6 comments6 min readEA link

Tak­ing Sys­temic Change Seriously

kbogOct 24, 2016, 11:18 PM
7 points
25 comments3 min readEA link

Crit­i­cism of EA and longtermism

St. IgnorantSep 2, 2022, 7:23 AM
2 points
0 comments14 min readEA link

Long-dis­tance de­vel­op­ment policy

Karthik TadepalliJan 18, 2025, 10:38 AM
65 points
4 comments11 min readEA link

Re­view of The Good It Promises, the Harm It Does

Richard Y Chappell🔸May 2, 2023, 3:45 PM
215 points
55 comments10 min readEA link
(rychappell.substack.com)

X-Risk Re­searchers Sur­vey

NitaSanghaApr 24, 2023, 8:06 AM
12 points
1 comment1 min readEA link

EA in Poli­tics: Let’s De­bunk a Taboo

Anna TosoDec 12, 2023, 4:25 PM
12 points
2 comments10 min readEA link

Green ba­sic in­come and health taxes as a way for sys­temic change

Ulf Graf 🔹Aug 20, 2024, 7:11 PM
19 points
1 comment13 min readEA link

The most good sys­tem vi­sual and sta­bi­liza­tion steps

brb243Mar 14, 2022, 11:54 PM
3 points
0 comments1 min readEA link

Crowd­sourc­ing The Best Ideas for Struc­tural Demo­cratic Reforms

Izzy GainsburgAug 21, 2024, 5:35 PM
42 points
3 comments1 min readEA link

Billion­aire philan­thropy (Part 7: Donor dis­cre­tion)

Matrice JacobineNov 25, 2024, 8:38 AM
35 points
17 comments1 min readEA link
(reflectivealtruism.com)

[Question] What does the sys­tems per­spec­tive say about effec­tive in­ter­ven­tions?

Jonas HallgrenOct 8, 2024, 10:01 AM
8 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

A Pa­tient’s Per­spec­tive of Mea­sur­ing Health Outcomes

quinngraceNov 28, 2024, 8:46 PM
18 points
4 comments11 min readEA link

On the in­sti­tu­tional cri­tique of effec­tive al­tru­ism: a re­sponse (mainly) to Brian Berkey

zzz1407Aug 31, 2022, 5:55 PM
6 points
0 comments32 min readEA link

Com­plex­ity and the Search for Leverage

NaryanMay 28, 2021, 3:06 PM
33 points
9 comments5 min readEA link

[Question] What are some af­ford­able RCT re­search or­ga­ni­za­tions?

brb243Jan 12, 2022, 9:22 PM
8 points
1 comment1 min readEA link

A New­comer’s Cri­tique of EA—Un­der­pri­ori­tiz­ing Sys­tems Change?

Sam BattisNov 12, 2022, 11:04 PM
27 points
10 comments8 min readEA link

What Peter Singer Got Wrong (And Where Give Well Could Im­prove)

LiaHOct 14, 2022, 4:15 PM
4 points
3 comments6 min readEA link

In­tro­duc­ing The Log­i­cal Foun­da­tion, an EA-Aligned Non­profit with a Plan to End Poverty With Guaran­teed Income

Michael SimmNov 18, 2022, 8:13 AM
17 points
3 comments24 min readEA link
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