I would rather have my fingernails pulled out than take another class with this man. Don't get me wrong the class is easy, but it is tedious and in general this man is an uninspired professor. He loves to just pile on a bunch of useless busy work that makes you want to stick pencils into your eyes. But hey, like I said its a pretty easy A, as long as you don't mind the soul sucking BS.

This professor is already very poorly reviewed that there's really not much more to say. I'd only like to add that students should believe what's been said about his teaching style. It is all over the place. There's an enormous amount of reading. Group projects are worth huge chunks of your grade and force you to cooperate with people who may not pull their own weight. The exams are extremely difficult, but at least they are curved. Overall I would not recommend this class even if the title of it sounds interesting. It's not really about authoritarian politics. Rather it focuses on scholarly debates between several academics about the abstract concepts of democracy and dictatorship. A tiny fraction of the class is actually about looking at actual regimes in the real word. Most of it pertains to several authors and their minute differences in their definitions of specific terms. There is also statistics involved so if you don't like math I would also not recommend this class.

If white bread was a dude but also just no. Go for it if you hate yourself.

This class initially appeared to be decent, however, as time went on, the course became more and more confusing and I felt that the materials that we learned in his lectures were very rushed which did not give us enough time to fully understand. I also expected to learn a mixture of politics and economics and how they are shaped together, I felt as if the majority was economics and just a tip of politics. Although I believe that the professor himself is not a bad person and reasonable to talk with, he was not good/ a little too rushed when it comes to teaching. The only positive I could think of was that the workload was manageable, there were 19 quizzes, 4 problem sets and 3 papers requiring 2~3 pages. Grading will vary with some provided with feedback and reasons why points were deducted, however, there were also some where we are only told where we got our points deducted but without giving proper reason. Overall, my time in this class was not pleasant, and would only recommend this class if there are no alternatives or is a requirement for your major.

It's been two quarters since I've taken this class so it's a little fuzzy but I can remember most of the important details. I think I did get the top grade in the class but I'll be as objective as possible.

Professor Roberts is a FAST talker. If you are someone who feels intimidated by fast talkers this class is definitely not for you. If you know a lot of the stuff beforehand, it will definitely help you understand what he's saying.

Midterm: (Only took a midterm cuz CORONA)

TBH a lot of the concepts are rehashes of ECON 1. If you've never taken ECON 1 or you don't have a firm grasp of ECON concepts you are in for a rollercoaster of confusion. On the midterm people got some disastrous grades because they weren't 100% sure about some basic concepts. The midterm was curved up, though, because people got some awful grades. There is also extra credit on the midterm. (I think I got a 100, and then my grade was boosted to 111 from extra credit+the curve.) I just reviewed quiz problems + past midterm exams that the professor uploads.

Read the book. Go. To. Office. Hours.
I don't think anyone can say they deserved a 111 but I did come close because I intuitively knew that I would have to go to the Prof's office hours as much as I could for research exercises and problem sets because they are not well-explained SO GO.

Good luck. I felt dumb a lot of the time because I couldn't understand what the Prof was saying most of the time even when he was talking directly at me in office hours. Good guy though. He tries to be helpful. He tries.

I am a stats major so I knew everything before the course. Had I not been a stats major, I would not have been able to follow the course because the Professor has no idea what he is talking about. Plus, he doesn't understand some of the concepts he teach (standard error vs standard deviation and anova and such) so it is painstaking watching him crash and burn. If I met him outside of class, I wouldn't have noticed him.

Honestly, this class was definitely manageable and Prof Roberts did a great job of helping his students out. He has "labs" now, which are essentially office hours except he goes over practice problems and reviews material and any questions that students may have. Yes, he is a fast talker, but honestly it was better for me since I absolutely dislike when a professor has disengaging and slow lectures. His assignments consisted of bi-weekly problem sets and bi-weekly papers that are 2 pages (double spaced). I wouldn't call this class super easy, but definitely easy enough especially because he makes it interesting and relevant to today's economy. I enjoyed it, definitely a 10/10.

Honestly, it makes me kind of sad that Tyson gets such poor reviews. YES he is an incredibly disorganized professor and really struggles with class structure, BUT he is a really genuine guy who does care about what he is teaching. I think his lack of organization makes approaching him seem really scary, but Tyson was really eager to help when I asked questions. NO ONE WENT TO HIS OFFICE HOURS

I will admit, the homework for this class was a lot. Required about 2 hours per night to get through the required textbook excersises. I did not really need to study for the quizzes or tests as I felt like we practiced the material a lot in class and in homework + ALL TESTS ARE OPEN NOTE.

Ultimately, this class did stress me out. But I feel like a lot of the moaning and groaning about roberts comes from freshmen who won't go to office hours and expect these entry level courses.

OVERALL - probably not the best professor for this class. but its doable

While I learned a lot from this class, the midterm and final exams required so much studying that I ended up using 50+ pages to fill out his study guide for the second quarter alone. Each week you have to complete country assignments (which are mostly based on completion) that are very helpful in writing your final essay on a country you choose at the beginning of the quarter as it is related to class concepts. I got a good grade on the essay. The midterm was extremely difficult but he ended up curving so the class average was a 77. Participation is also required as every class you take a PollEv which counts for your grade based on correctness (you can sometimes get away with guessing). Professor Roberts seems kind of unhelpful in office hours and doesn't respond to the discussion board which is his "online office hours." I ended up getting a good grade, but this is because I worked very hard towards the end of the quarter. The benefits of the class was I actually learned a lot about international development, Africa, and my country, and I don't think Professor Roberts is that bad of a lecturer. He records on BruinCast so you can go back and revisit the lectures. The textbook is required to do well in the class, a lot of test material is based on it.

The topic of this class is fascinating to me, which is the reason why I like it. You would learn how international political economy works by looking at world trade, game theory, currency exchange, debt, etc. But the textbook was the most helpful, as Prof seemed to be always rushing through topics that he didn't clearly explain. Besides a midterm and a final, you have to do two short research papers. Overall, this class is not too hard if you can study without relying heavily on the professor.