The Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin – Madison is a highly ranked program that offers domestic and international degrees in public management and policy analysis. Our strength derives from our core faculty and broader group of faculty affiliates who are part of the internationally renowned social science departments at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The faculty have international reputations in their academic disciplines, and they have spent the greater part of their careers working on problems of public policy and governance.

La Follette prides itself in the continued practice of the Wisconsin Idea, a century-long commitment of the University of Wisconsin to extend its expertise beyond the campus borders to solve the problems of the world at large. In the early decades of the 20th century, Wisconsin's great social scientists were inventing and adapting the programs of Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, and Workers Compensation so the general society could benefit from the gains made possible by a rapidly changing free market. These social scientists worked closely with political leaders like Robert M. La Follette to help enact legislation that embodied the best social science research.

Today, La Follette School faculty, alumni, students, and staff extend the practice of the Wisconsin Idea across the state and around the world through research and outreach on topics that include the design and management of social welfare programs, international currency and trade, analysis of the effects of welfare reform, determinants of health and health care reform, environmental regulation, public management and finance, Social Security, and science and technology.