Prof. Schwartz is a true academic, and one of the sharpest professors I have ever had a class with. Briefly put, his class will show you what true, graduate-level political science is like (he'll tell you that himself). This showed in the style of the course: round-table discussion, only about 20 students enrolled, and the only requirements of any kind being three (relatively short) papers and two sets of exercises. The material is composed of interesting topics in social and public choice theory, and requires heavy reading of complicated, high-level papers and literature by some of the field's most important names. The assigned essays are very flexible in their topics - Schwartz offers around 20 different prompts per assignment, and makes it clear that he'd also accept anything else that's related to that week's overarching topic. While the material itself is fairly difficult, he's fairly lenient on grading as long as you argue concisely and competently in your papers. Schwartz himself is a very charismatic, congenial guy with a wealth of stories and experiences that he loves to share, and is always willing to help out or meet in office hours. If you have a genuine love of political theory and models, you'll probably get more out of this class than any other undergraduate course offered.

Very easy class. Schwartz is a brilliant man, and an excellent professor. He's very funny with tons of interesting stories, and many of my classmates agreed that they actually look forward to coming to his lectures. It's a very stress free class and you actually learn the material.

Crosslisted as Econ M135. Schwartz is an AMAZING man. If you have the chance, get to know him because he has been involved with many interesting and influential events. Schwartz really enjoys political models... ie voting, bill passing etc. He uses a vague grading scale such as excellent, or not your best, which can be frustrating but in the end he seemed to grade fairly. Assigns A LOT of reading, that he sometimes refers to in class and other times does not. If you can think on your feet you should fare fine. Assignments are well spaced and feel free to chat with him about it if you are confused. He also loves colored chalk and can be quite funny. Overall, you will learn in accordance to the amount of effort you put into it.