Public Matters

After preparing to lead a quiet life as a teacher and scholar of political theory, William Galston has spent the past quarter century crossing the boundaries between academia and public life, including a two-year stint as Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy under President Clinton. Reflecting these boundary-crossings, Public Matters contains a selection of Galston's essays on politics, policy, and religion.

After preparing to lead a quiet life as a teacher and scholar of political theory, William Galston has spent the past quarter century crossing the boundaries between academia and public life, including a two-year stint as Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy under President Clinton. Reflecting these boundary-crossings, Public Matters contains a selection of Galston's essays on politics, policy, and religion. Each is viewed through the prisms of history, theory, and ethical concerns. The essays on politics tell the story of Galston's efforts to help redirect the Democratic Party so that it speaks more clearly to the concerns of 21st century Americans. The essays in the policy section reflect the range of issues with which Galston has grappled as a political activist and public official. Finally, the essays on religion try to come to grips with the challenges that religion, taken seriously (as it should be) poses for the governance of constitutional democracies.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 2 Politics
Chapter 3 Incomplete Victory: The Rise of the New Democrats
Chapter 4 Strategic Challenges facing the Democratic Party
Chapter 5 Two Postmortems: The 2004 Elections and the Future of the Democratic Party
Chapter 6 The Art of Association in Free Societies: Alexis de Tocqueville and Liberal Democracy
Part 7 Policy
Chapter 8 The Perils of Preemptive War
Chapter 9 Some Arguments for Universal Service
Chapter 10 Ethics and Public Policy in a Pluralist Democracy: The Case of Human Embryo Research
Chapter 11 Some Proposals to Help Parents: A Progressive Perspective
Part 12 Religion
Chapter 13 Conscience, Religious Accommodation, and Political Authority
Chapter 14 Religion, Family, and Regime: The Case of Mormon Polygamy
Chapter 15 Contending with Liberalism: Modern Catholic Social Thought
Chapter 16 Traditional Judaism and American Citizenship
Chapter 17 Jews, Muslims, and the Prospects for Pluralism