I was really excited to take a seminar style class. The topic is niche and very interesting, however the 3 hour long class structure without having any form of lesson plan besides large group dialogue was taxing and boring. The class is composed of a few short quiz grades, and then 3 papers written throughout the quarter. Professor Zaller is VERY kind and offered me great feedback on all of my assignments. I could tell he read my work carefully. Having the personal connection to a professor through a seminar is so beneficial, and I enjoyed listening to Professor Zaller, who had endless wisdom on politics. I wish some of the assignments were less ambiguous and had more instructions. Professor Zaller does not follow the syllabus verbatim, and the changing of deadlines was difficult sometimes. I would take a class with Professor Zaller again, but would only take this class if I was really interested in the topic and was willing to speak up and engage in conversation.

This course was a more advanced, narrowly focused, version of his 142A course— which he offers as a prerequisite to 191C.

In many ways this course is easy, you have creative freedom to form your own opinions on research papers but you need to understand his “Theory of Parties” first.

The more difficult aspect of this course is found in his quizzes. He issued a weekly quiz based on lectures and readings. He takes specific passages or asks questions about individuals mentioned in the readings. There are usually 2-4 questions on each quiz and it can be multiple choice or short answer depending on what he decides.

This course was overall very enjoyable and had the readings and quizzes not been like studying for a mini midterm each week I may have been able to take my time and appreciate the concepts more.

If you take this course be prepared to work for your A and realize that it will probably make you apply less attention to your other ones.