William Arthur Galston (/ˈɡɔːlstən/; born January 17, 1946) is an American author, academic, and political advisor,[4] who holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies and is a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution.[5][6] Formerly the Saul Stern Professor and Dean at the
School of Public Policy at the
University of Maryland and a professor of political science at the
University of Texas, Austin,[7] Galston specializes in issues of U.S.
public philosophy and political institutions, having joined the Brookings Institution on January 1, 2006.[6]
He was deputy assistant for domestic policy to U.S. President
Bill Clinton (January 1993 – May 1995).[1][5][7] He has also been employed by the presidential campaigns of
Al Gore (1988, 2000),[9][10]Walter Mondale,[10] and
John B. Anderson.[11] Since 1995, Galston has served as a founding member of the Board of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and as chair of the Campaign's Task Force on Religion and Public Values.
Galston had once served in the
United States Marine Corps as a sergeant.[5] He was educated at
Cornell, where he was a member of the
Telluride House, and the
University of Chicago,[9] where he got his Ph.D.[5][9] He then taught for nearly a decade in the Department of Government at the University of Texas.[5] From 1998 until 2005 he was professor of public policy at the University of Maryland. Later he was
executive director for the National Commission on Civic Renewal.[5][7] Galston founded, with support from
The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.[5] He was also director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy,[5] both located at the University of Maryland.
He has written on questions of political and moral philosophy,
U.S. politics and public policy,[5] having produced eight books and more than one hundred articles.[7] His most recent book is Public Matters: Politics, Policy, and Religion in the 21st Century (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).[5] Galston is also a co-author of Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation and What We Can Do About It, published by the Brookings Press.[5]
Galston became an op-ed columnist for the Wall Street Journal in 2013. In 2014, he continued public commentary on partisan politics.[12][13]
Rovner, Mark J.;
Galston, William A. (1987). One year to go : citizen attitudes in Iowa and New Hampshire : a report on focus groups conducted by the Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies. Washington, D.C.: The Center.
ISBN0913217093.
LCCN87060758.
Rovner, Mark J.;
Galston, William A. (1987). Southern voices/southern views : a report on focus groups conducted by the Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies. Washington, DC: The Center.
LCCN87072197.
Obert, John C.;
Galston, William A. (1985). Down-- down-- down-- on the farm : the farm financial crisis, a background paper. Washington, D.C.: Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies.
ISBN0913217034.
LCCN85060998.
^
abBeem, Christopher (January 1, 2002).
"William Galston". In Utter, Glenn H.; Lockhart, Charles (eds.). American Political Scientists: A Dictionary.
ABC-CLIO. p. 125.
ISBN9780313319570. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
^Balz, Dan; Rucker, Philip (February 16, 2016). "Democrats' next leaders will grapple with schism". Washington Post. p. A17. William A. Galston of the Brookings Institution said, "It's not just a case of the very rich getting richer. If that were the only thing going on I think we'd be having a very different conversation. It's also a case of the people in the middle at best treading water and in fact doing a little bit worse than that."