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William A. Galston

William A. Galston

William A. Galston, an editorial board member of American Purpose, holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, where he serves as a Senior Fellow. Prior to January 2006 he was the Saul Stern Professor and Acting Dean at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, founding director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), and executive director of the National Commission on Civic Renewal, co-chaired by former Secretary of Education William Bennett and former Senator Sam Nunn. A participant in six presidential campaigns, he served from 1993 to 1995 as deputy assistant to President Clinton for domestic policy.

Galston is author of nine books and more than 100 articles in the fields of political theory, public policy, and American politics. His most recent books are Anti-Pluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy (2018), Public Matters (2005), and The Practice of Liberal Pluralism (2004). A winner of the American Political Science Association’s Hubert H. Humphrey Award, Galston was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004.

Galston has appeared on all the principal television networks and is frequently interviewed on NPR. He writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal.

Articles and Events

Good Intentions Gone Awry

Good Intentions Gone Awry

To resist illiberal assaults, defenders of liberal democracy must first shed their own illusions.

William A. Galston
When Character Reigned

When Character Reigned

George Washington’s eloquence and character quelled a military revolt that could have strangled America’s constitutional government in its cradle.

William A. Galston
Hazony’s Un-American Conservatism
Books

Hazony’s Un-American Conservatism

Yoram Hazony’s new book steeps national conservatism in his own imagined American history.

William A. Galston
The World Is Watching

The World Is Watching

Five perspectives from five countries on the Ukraine war.

Hiro Aida, William A. Galston, Josef Joffe, Elia Preto Martini, Michael Žantovský
Whose Good, Anyway?

Whose Good, Anyway?

Whatever their intentions, national conservatives are taking us down a dangerous path. This applies equally to the eloquent ones like Christopher DeMuth. Read Gabriel Schoenfeld next Friday on Anton, Deneen, and Hazony; and Corbin Barthold in two weeks on the Jacobinism of the new Right.

William A. Galston

Continuing Liberty conference, September 20-22, 2021: "A House Divided? Polarization Post-Trump" with Daniel Cox, William A. Galston, William Kristol, Nicole Penn, Luke Nathan Phillips, and John Wood, Jr. In association with Braver Angels

Part of the Continuing Liberty [https://www.americanpurpose.com/continuing-liberty/] conference. 2:00 p.m.—3:15 p.m. ET A House Divided? Polarization Post-Trump In association with Braver Angels DANIEL COX, Survey Center on American Life and American Enterprise Institute William A. Galston, Brookings Institution and American Purpose William

American Purpose, William A. Galston, Nicole Penn
The Bitter Heartland

The Bitter Heartland

A toxic class resentment has been festering for decades among rural and small-town Americans.

William A. Galston
Bin Laden’s Posthumous Victory

Bin Laden’s Posthumous Victory

It wasn’t September 11 that caused our national decline; it was our response to the disaster.

William A. Galston