Good class. McNamee is an excellent lecturer and is very clear.
The content was very interesting however I'd argue that the reading load was somewhat heavy -- and you really had to read most of them (if not all of them) to get a good participation grade in section and succeed on the midterm and final.

The midterm (25% of grade) was pretty easy. Essentially a take-home essay that consisted of short-answer questions.

The final was surprisingly brutal. It was two 1000-2000 word essays assigned over a 5 day time period during finals week (ie. roughly 12-15 pages in 5 days... while you're taking other finals). McNamee said that this assignment should only take 1 day, and I'm not exactly sure how that's possible. I believe many people complained and got extensions, so hopefully this final is changed in the future, or at the very least students are given more time to do it.

However, even with this final, this class was among the most interesting Pol Sci courses I've taken at UCLA. I'd recommend it to anyone.