After four years at UCLA, I can confidently state that Professor Branstetter is the best professor I have ever had at UCLA. He truly has a talent for seamlessly breaking down historical events and relaying important concepts in an easily comprehendible manner. Although I often find learning history or political theory to be relatively dull, Professor Branstetter does an incredible job of making his lectures interesting and keeping his students engaged.
The framework for the class is as follows:
7 short quizzes (2 of the lowest scores are dropped) - I can not emphasize enough how simple and straightforward the quizzes are, if you watch the lectures you will easily get a 100% on all of them
1 midterm and 1 final - both of which essentially require you to regurgitate the information you have learned in your own words; the professor mainly wants to see that you have learned the important concepts and are able to explain them in your own ways
Overall, I would recommend Professor Branstetter and any of his courses to every student at UCLA

Prof. Branstetter is a nice guy, but this is easily the worst class I've taken at UCLA. Disorganized, incomprehensible lectures and the lack of detailed powerpoints makes the dense material even harder to understand.

Absolutely loved this class, easily one of my favorite classes taken here. Branstetter does a great job of making one of the most daunting and challenging books I've ever seen extremely accessible and relatively easy to get. There was (I think?) 7 quizzes that you had from the end of the class to the beginning of the next class to do on that chapter/lecture worth a total of 20%, and a midterm and final each worth 40%. He is extremely helpful if you have any questions about the material. I am not normally a fan of political theory, but he definitely made it worth it.

Professor Branstetter is amazing. He is super funny and extremely intelligent. I had him for his comparative political theory class. His class consists of three papers (no exams). He does not require you to purchase textbooks as he posts the readings online. He has office hours in the sculpture garden which he records live on Facebook so students can watch and ask questions from home. He loves answering questions and is very approachable. If you are a poli sci major with an emphasis in political theory take his class!

Professor Brandstetter is absolutely phenomenal!! He is a great lecturer and truly enjoys what he teaches. The class is relatively simple, weekly essays with no midterm or final, and he is alwasy open to doing extra office hours or talking after class. He also geniunely cares about his students, he is super flexible and always willing to work with you to be your best advocate.

Incredible professor. Great GE for anyone who's okay writing 1 1-2 page partner essay a week. Readings can be long but are relevant and engaging.

Professor John (as he likes to be called) is obviously very passionate about the material. That being said, he assigns a LOT of reading. However... I did not do any of it. You just need to have a basic concept of it (like a 3-4 paragraph summary), and if you do you can easily follow along in lectures. TAKE NOTES. Tie what you learned in the lecture into your paper and you'll get a 100%. The class consists of a weekly essay, 1-2 pages single-spaced. If you are not doing the readings, know a summary and go to lectures, and tie those notes into your paper. If you are doing the readings, tie what you learned into your paper and only go to lecture if you feel like it. You can submit your essay up as many times as you want to get a 100%, and it being said that these papers are the only things you do in the class, it is very easy to get an A+. Discussion sections are obviously mandatory and if you weren't feeling like going to lecture, the section often covers similar material you can use in your paper. No midterm and no final. This class is very low stress if you avoid the readings... however, if you are not going to lecture and not doing the readings at the same time, it may be very time consuming and stressful to research enough to make your paper sound good. So either do one or the other and this class will be a breeze. I really enjoyed it and Professor John offers two opportunities throughout the week to connect about the material or honestly anything else. If you are really passionate about Political Science and not just looking for an easy GE, definitely show up to office hours. Professor John is amazing and I highly recommend this class.

Professor Branstetter is an amazing person and professor. The content has been switched from previous quarters but is very interesting and involves a lot of philosophical questions. The grade is all points based. You get 3 points per section you attend (30 points total) and then 7 points a week (10 of them) for a one-page (single-spaced) essay. You are allowed to submit the essay as many times as you need to get the grade you want and they are encouraged to be submitted every week, but are technically not required to submit it until finals week. However, the weekly readings are very chunky (sometimes over 200ish pages). He has a zoom and a recorded option and does not take lecture attendance. Overall, this class is one of the best Poli Sci lower divs and a really easy GE. Enrollment for this class is super hard to get, but worth it to keep trying (he sometimes will give out PTEs depending on how the department is feeling).

I really enjoyed this class. I didn't think I would be interested in Marxism, but it was very interesting, and since there were no tests, I feel like I could better take in the content and interpret it instead of having to memorize things. Professor Branstetter is amazing and really knows what he is talking about. The lectures were definitely long at an hour and 50 minutes (and mine was at 8am). There were only 10 assignments, each a 500 word essay responding to the question of the week (and you worked with the same partner on all of them).They are all due finals week, although it is heavily encouraged to submit earlier, as you can edit and they will regrade it until you get the score you want. Even though there are little assignments, you read one chapter of Marx's Capital about every class period and the book is over 600 pages that you read throughout the quarter. Overall, it was a great class and I feel like I learned a lot about capitalism and the economy.

Branstetter is one of the most phenomenal lecturers at UCLA. I think everyone, regardless of major, should take this course at some point in their lives because he truly challenges all of your preconceived notions of society, free will, and human behavior. He breaks down the readings in a way that anyone could understand and find interesting. I appreciated how reasonable the workload was, especially for a political theory class. More poli sci classes should adopt this structure!
My critique of this class is that it spent 10 weeks identifying problems in society and human nature but it did not provide any solutions. It was SO difficult to apply the content because it seemed like there was nothing that could be done. It felt a little depressing. I wish this class included actionable steps or policy implications to make this content more concrete.