The class has a manageable workload, but since I took it over the summer, the moment you fall behind, it becomes impossible to catch up. The papers are graded quite harshly because both the professor and his TA/graders are working through them, and they often have different expectations. His lessons are video-recorded and often quite engaging, even though they are very time-consuming. The texts read are staple political theory/political science works, so they can be a bit difficult to interpret due to the nature and time of writing. However, the professor himself is very helpful in office hours, and he explains these works quite well. Don't take it if you procrastinate/fall behind on work easily, or if you do try to take it during the year instead of the summer.

the worst class you could possibly imagine

I LOVED Professor Norton's class. He is such an engaging lecturer and truly cares about his students understanding the material. There is definitely a lot of reading for the class, but doing it makes the essay assignments 10x easier. He goes over important aspects of the readings in lecture which makes doing all of the readings super in depth not as necessary. He is also super helpful with questions and easy to get in touch with, which is especially helpful if you want feedback on essay ideas as there was no TA over summer. Participation is important, but since the class is online during summer, sending messages in the chat suffices! Overall, he is such a good professor and makes it so easy to engage with and get interested in the course material. I would definitely take another one of his classes and recommend this one if you need a poli sci lower div!