POL SCI M167C
Political Economy of Development
Description: (Same as International Development Studies M120.) Lecture, three or four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Requisite: course 50. Political economy approach to puzzle of why some countries are rich and others are poor and why, among latter, some have been able to achieve rapid rates of economic growth and others have not. Explanation and review of logic behind most important arguments that have been advanced to account for differences across countries in rates and levels of economic development. May be applied toward either Field IV or V. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - I did not like this class. The content itself was okay (although confusing at times), but I did not like how he taught. He uses slides, but only for images; in other words, he does not have words on his slides, and you are required to listen to him lecture for an hour and fifteen minutes straight. At some point, you are bound to doze off during an hour and fifteen minute lecture, and when you stop listening for only a minute, it’s hard to figure out where you are in the lecture. Obviously, this is subjective, and some people may like how Posner teaches. Personally, I just do not do well with straight listening, so I didn’t have the best time. Aside from that, you can tell that Posner is a good guy and very clearly loves to teach. Here’s the grading breakdown: MIDTERM ONE: worth 25% of your grade. The first midterm is an in-class bluebook exam where you identify 6 terms. Basically, Posner wants you to say what the term is and the importance of the term in the context of the course. Posner will provide a list of roughly 30-40 terms a week before the exam and you will study the terms on that list. On the exam day, Posner hands out a paper with 8 terms on it. Of those 8 terms, you pick 6 terms and identify them. MIDTERM TWO: worth 25% of your grade. The second midterm is given a week after the first midterm. This midterm is a take home essay and is supposed to be around 5 pages. Posner will post a prompt, and you have 30 hours to complete the midterm. FINAL: worth 35% of your grade. A 50-question multiple choice scantron exam. 2/3 of the questions involve content from the second half of the quarter, and 1/3 of questions involve content from the first half of the quarter. PLEASE NOTE — Posner changed the exam format, given that our TAs were striking. Originally, the final exam was going to be a bluebook exam where we were to identify 4-5 terms (similar to the first midterm), answer 2 short answer questions, and answer 1 essay question. If you take this class, you will most likely NOT have the multiple choice final exam; you will probably have the bluebook exam that was originally scheduled before the strike ensued. PARTICIPATION AND ATTENDANCE: worth 15% of your grade. This grade depends on your TA. My TA, Paul Bahk, graded this with 10% being actual attendance and 5% being if you participated in the discussion sections. The participation and attendance split will vary depending on your TA. My biggest complaint about this class was that when Posner gave out the midterm and final terms, a lot of the terms were ones we hadn’t gone over yet. Our classes were Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he would post the terms list on BruinLearn/Canvas on the Tuesday before class, and he would talk about new terms that would be on our midterm and final the Tuesday and Thursday before the exam date. It’s difficult to study terms when you have not learned them yet, and, in my opinion, a little unfair to test us on terms we learned less than 7 days ago. To sum it up, I did not like this course. The Bruinwalk reviews made the class seem easy, but it was much more difficult than anticipated. Posner assigns many readings and often introduces 2-4 new terms per lecture. Although this class is labeled as a Methods and Models course, it is more of an International Relations course. If you like IR courses, then you will like this course. If you don’t like IR courses, you will probably not enjoy this class.
Spring 2024 - I did not like this class. The content itself was okay (although confusing at times), but I did not like how he taught. He uses slides, but only for images; in other words, he does not have words on his slides, and you are required to listen to him lecture for an hour and fifteen minutes straight. At some point, you are bound to doze off during an hour and fifteen minute lecture, and when you stop listening for only a minute, it’s hard to figure out where you are in the lecture. Obviously, this is subjective, and some people may like how Posner teaches. Personally, I just do not do well with straight listening, so I didn’t have the best time. Aside from that, you can tell that Posner is a good guy and very clearly loves to teach. Here’s the grading breakdown: MIDTERM ONE: worth 25% of your grade. The first midterm is an in-class bluebook exam where you identify 6 terms. Basically, Posner wants you to say what the term is and the importance of the term in the context of the course. Posner will provide a list of roughly 30-40 terms a week before the exam and you will study the terms on that list. On the exam day, Posner hands out a paper with 8 terms on it. Of those 8 terms, you pick 6 terms and identify them. MIDTERM TWO: worth 25% of your grade. The second midterm is given a week after the first midterm. This midterm is a take home essay and is supposed to be around 5 pages. Posner will post a prompt, and you have 30 hours to complete the midterm. FINAL: worth 35% of your grade. A 50-question multiple choice scantron exam. 2/3 of the questions involve content from the second half of the quarter, and 1/3 of questions involve content from the first half of the quarter. PLEASE NOTE — Posner changed the exam format, given that our TAs were striking. Originally, the final exam was going to be a bluebook exam where we were to identify 4-5 terms (similar to the first midterm), answer 2 short answer questions, and answer 1 essay question. If you take this class, you will most likely NOT have the multiple choice final exam; you will probably have the bluebook exam that was originally scheduled before the strike ensued. PARTICIPATION AND ATTENDANCE: worth 15% of your grade. This grade depends on your TA. My TA, Paul Bahk, graded this with 10% being actual attendance and 5% being if you participated in the discussion sections. The participation and attendance split will vary depending on your TA. My biggest complaint about this class was that when Posner gave out the midterm and final terms, a lot of the terms were ones we hadn’t gone over yet. Our classes were Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he would post the terms list on BruinLearn/Canvas on the Tuesday before class, and he would talk about new terms that would be on our midterm and final the Tuesday and Thursday before the exam date. It’s difficult to study terms when you have not learned them yet, and, in my opinion, a little unfair to test us on terms we learned less than 7 days ago. To sum it up, I did not like this course. The Bruinwalk reviews made the class seem easy, but it was much more difficult than anticipated. Posner assigns many readings and often introduces 2-4 new terms per lecture. Although this class is labeled as a Methods and Models course, it is more of an International Relations course. If you like IR courses, then you will like this course. If you don’t like IR courses, you will probably not enjoy this class.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Such an amazing class and professor, would highly recommend. I feel like we didn't really go deep into any of the themes or topics, but I still learned a lot. Prof Ross is really good at making the materials clear and have really structured, easy to follow lectures. He really cares about your learning and is super accommodating. I really enjoyed a lot of this class, even the readings, which were difficult at times. Overall a great time.
Spring 2020 - Such an amazing class and professor, would highly recommend. I feel like we didn't really go deep into any of the themes or topics, but I still learned a lot. Prof Ross is really good at making the materials clear and have really structured, easy to follow lectures. He really cares about your learning and is super accommodating. I really enjoyed a lot of this class, even the readings, which were difficult at times. Overall a great time.
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