Anti-Pluralism
The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy (Politics and Culture)

Galston is a long-time liberal theorist--never, I think, a provocatively original one (though I found some of his early work on "liberal virtues," as a way to conceptually bring civic republican/communitarian elements into the liberal philosophical sphere very helpful), but a reliably insightful one......more

I'd say this is a solid introduction to the political science side of the right-wing populist wave that swept democratic nations over the past few years. The problem is that Galston, who certainly demonstrates his intelligence and acute political analysis in this book, seems to be just that: a strai......more

A very fine introduction to and assessment of political liberalism and the challenge of populism and tendencies toward illiberal democracy. The presentation of the subject within the global context is both informative and frightening. I appreciate the bibliographical citations in the footnotes. The......more

Anti-Pluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy by professor William Galston is not particularly unique or impressive, but can readily be used as a useful base source for understanding populism and some of the elements facing trends in modern democratic nations. I will likely revisit it in......more

Great book. Galston's point that populism's main tenent is it anti-pluralism is well argued and I haven't really thought about it in that way previously. It explains why populist parties are not explicitly anti-democratic (and not necessarily so as a hidden agenda either). They can be democratic, bu......more