Definitely take this if you have any interest in politics. A lot of people give Waldner shit for being "arrogant" or "rude", but don't listen to those nerds because I think he is hilarious and engaging. A lot of reading, but I did none of it and was able to get a B+ in the class. Exams are pretty straightforward essay based and short answer like most politics courses, no papers or anything so thats cool. Just go to class and take good notes and you should be able to get by with not much effort

This class was very informative. Professor Waldner is clearly very knowledgeable.

The teacher uses really dense, scholarly articles (in addition to less frequent chapter readings). The articles are really boring, and one does not need to read them to get a good grade. Lectures are boring, and Waldner thinks he's funny when he's really not. He posts lecture slides online which explain all of the readings. There is also a mandatory discussion section that is pointless. You have to write two discussion questions per week that you don't discuss, and all in all, you learn nothing in discussion. I did not read the articles and the last five chapters, I skipped the last three weeks of class (as well as some classes during the earlier portion of semester), and I still got an A-. I never saw someone who got an A on one of the midterms, and Waldner says there is no curve, but I believe he curves the final because there are people who end up with A's (slightly more than thecourseforum says). The only grades are two midterms and a final, meaning no papers or written homework. It's really boring, and unless your a politics major, then I would not recommend this class.

I did not like this class when I took it... that being said after having taken this class I see the usefulness of the concepts Waldner discusses. This was an annoying class, but if you do the readings you should be fine and be able to glean something interesting out of it.

DO NOT take this class unless you are planning on majoring in foreign affairs or a related subject. concepts are extremely broad and extremely boring. all of the concepts are based off of his lecture slides and dense, scholarly articles that can be difficult to read at times. he posts all of his lecture slides online, but his lectures are helpful. there are two midterms and a final exam. very few questions determine your grade, and your work is relative to everyone else's. he assigns readings in the textbooks, but they are irrelevant to the material on the midterm and the final, and they are very basic. Bob Kubinec is a great TA

You can get away with not attending lectures because Waldner posts his lecture slides online, but he often clarifies his slides in class. The textbook readings are completely unnecessary - skip those. You'll need to spend plenty of time on the articles he assigns, though. Waldner's a good lecturer - I appreciated his attempts at humor. An easy and useful class.

Waldner is a pretty good lecturer, and he often tries to keep students engaged by telling (bad) jokes, while still getting the important material across. He sometimes goes off an incredibly long winded tangents and uses unnecessary examples, but he always manages to get the point across. The reading is a bit heavy and annoying, but it's definitely manageable. Two midterms and a final.

Professor Waldner was great. He tried to make the lectures interesting and funny (though some of his jokes were overused). There's a lot of reading which you should definitely read if you want a good grade and it's dense but readable. The exams also aren't too bad as long as you incorporate examples from the readings into your essays. Overall definitely a worthwhile class if you're interested in international government or even just politics in general.

Waldner is the MAN! The class is exciting and the material is very interesting to anyone with an interest in politics. Unfortunately, the reading is dense and dry, so getting through it is tough, but necessary. Waldner manages to spin a story together out of all the crappy readings that is enjoyable and so interesting. Sam is a great TA. His discussions can be dry and boring, but he is incredibly helpful and knows the material better than the other TA's.

Waldner made this class. Favorite professor of my first semester by far. There's a lot of reading but you can grasp the concepts without reading everything if necessary. If you're looking for a class to compare England's government to our government, this is not it. Waldner focuses on state formation and success/failure, but it's not boring at all.