Public policy & society

Public policy is the language used to formalize a society’s priorities and commitments to its members. The School of Public Affairs faculty conduct research in a wide range of substantive policy areas, such as education, health, and urban policy, as well as the social impacts of policies on marginalized populations and the nature of the policy process itself in a democratic society.


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Our School of Public Affairs alumni make a huge impact in Colorado and beyond! Read their stories.



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Faculty OpEds

  • Climate-change-850w

    Dealing with Disproportionality in Climate Change PolicymakingOpens in a new window

    Mar 21, 2022
    We often assume the ideal about our governments: they should act proportionately to the problems at hand. Governments should respond to minor issues with minor policy changes and major issues with major policy changes. This assumption of proportionality cumbers the effectiveness of solutions found across literatures, including adaptive management, sustainable development, and direct and deliberative democracy.
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  • US-Democracy-850w

    Countering the creeping crisis of democracy and political inequality

    Oct 14, 2020 by Professor Christopher Weible
    Professor Chris Weible and PhD student Jill Yordy discuss a faltering U.S. democracy in the face of a calamitous combination of crises in the pandemic, economy, climate change, and social inequities. They offer four guiding principles for bringing political equality into societal discourse, developing tools and techniques for its assessments, and fostering better theories of our understandings and practices for its emergence, realization, and maintenance.
    Full story


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