This class was okay at best. Prof. Posner caught COVID and the class was administered on ZOOM. As my fellow peers have stated, the TA you end up with matters, as they are the ones who will grade your midterm and final exam. My advice for you: Avoid TA Jacques Courbe at all costs. He graded us quite harshly in comparison to other TAs. On top of that, he was clearly unprepared for much of the discussion sections. It is ironic that he expected us, the students, to be on top of the weekly readings, yet he himself clearly wasn't. He literally BS'd the summary of many readings during sections -- so much for quality education. Jacques, if you are reading this, DO BETTER. We the students can sense whenever you BS, too, just sayin'.

Two midterms - exam & take home paper (25% each), final exam - but due to Covid it was a take home final (35%). and discussion (15%). My TA did not assign any class work, but graded based on attendance & participation. Professor Posner is an engaging lecturer and the material is easy to digest, he does include a lot of graphs and data in his slides. Posner does hand out study guides prior to each midterm and final. Originally, he did not record lectures, just posted slides, but once he got Covid himself and Covid cases increased, he finally made that decision to record and post it on Bruin Learn. Overall, if you put the work into studying for the exams and attend discussion, it's easy to get a good grade.

I thought the class itself was fine. But your grade depends entirely on your TA. My TA, Jacques, graded very harshly compared to the other three. Super unfair.

Really reasonable testing and workload. Never did the readings and got through the course well. Pretty basic overview of all of the concepts but interesting and pretty easy to follow along to what he's saying. Would recommend taking if you don't want to do busywork and prefer timed tests/essays.

This class's topic was interesting, but the number of readings and the dry lectures made it hard to sit through. the class consisted of two midterms (one in class and one take-home essay) and one final. it was a relatively easy class if you put the work in.

Oh man this class was the best. I enrolled in it as a 4th class initially because it was one of the only ps upperdivs come second pass and because the grade distribution looked great (tbh I didn't even know what political economy of development meant). I was not expecting the class to be so academically rewarding. Prof Posner is an engaging lecturer who clearly an expert in his field and ready to body any questions people threw at him mid lecture. You have to take pretty extensive notes because his slides aren't very informative (just pictures) so make sure you go to class or have a good note taking friend. My TA was fantastic and set the bar high right out of the gate which made discussions in section really interesting. The class was a lot of work and the midterm and final were difficult in that they required you to retain a lot of info but I don't think I've learned more from a class at UCLA than this one. TLDR: take this class if you want to learn more about the world and feel educated, but be prepared to work. Posner is great and so are his TAs; highly recommend

Oh man this class was the best. I enrolled in it as a 4th class initially because it was one of the only ps upperdivs come second pass and because the grade distribution looked great (tbh I didn't even know what political economy of development meant). I was not expecting the class to be so academically rewarding. Prof Posner is an engaging lecturer who clearly an expert in his field and ready to body any questions people threw at him mid lecture. You have to take pretty extensive notes because his slides aren't very informative (just pictures) so make sure you go to class or have a good note taking friend. My TA was fantastic and set the bar high right out of the gate which made discussions in section really interesting. The class was a lot of work and the midterm and final were difficult in that they required you to retain a lot of info but I don't think I've learned more from a class at UCLA than this one. TLDR: take this class if you want to learn more about the world and feel educated, but be prepared to work. Posner is great and so are his TAs; highly recommend

This is definitely a class that's easy to do well in. I didn't do any of the readings (there's a ton of them each week and they really vary in quality and relevance), but I took good notes in lecture (you really have to listen since his slides are just pictures and graphs) and got an A. Posner addresses interesting ideas and concepts but I found his lecture style to be repetitive and pretty wishy-washy. He doesn't take a stance on most things and I would say greatly oversimplifies a lot without much explanation.

Daniel Posner is awesome. I actually didn't want to take his class when I enrolled because I am not a fan of comparative politics, but the material was enlightening and Posner really knows his stuff. He has contributed a lot to the literature on much of what is discussed in the course, and did a good job organizing the class generally. His slides are just charts and graphs and pictures, which can be annoying if you take bad notes. But the studies he discusses in class are really interesting. Always approachable before and after class. For what it is worth, he also wore cool blazers to class on occasion.

The exams are really not that bad if you go to class and at least skim the readings. He will pull ID terms from the readings, so just going to class isn't going to cut it. As for my TA, she did a good job bringing key ideas from his lectures and readings into a condensed summary. The take-home midterm was doable. The final exam was a little much just because it also included short and long answer questions, but all-in-all not an insurmountable challenge.

Posner is great. This class isn't as interesting as his Africa class - perhaps I just find the topic somewhat dry - but it's an important one to take. Exams are reasonable.