Spring 2027

Introduction to American Politics and Government

Introduction to American politics covering basic institutions, constitutional structures, parties, interest groups, elections, and policy formation.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Matthew Pietryka

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Kenneth Mayer, John Coleman

The course involved a lot of reading, which one student found overwhelming, while another noted that the tests were really hard and advised taking the class with someone else.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Familiarize students with American political institutions.

  • Prepare students to take upper-level classes in American politics.

  • Get students interested in American politics.

  • Analyze issues and policies in U.S. politics.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Not open to students who have takenPOLI SCI 404

    • have takenPOLI SCI 404
    not eligible with
POLISCI 104 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Not eligible with
    • have takenPOLI SCI 404

Professors

Spring 2027
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

DAVID CANON is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2008, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOHN COLEMAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KENNETH MAYER is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Spring 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MATTHEW PIETRYKA is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1890
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 308Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 307Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 309Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 310Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 532Classroom Instruction0 / 00

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Kenneth Mayer

One student found the class incredibly boring and lost motivation despite the instructor being funny and good at lecturing, though prior AP Gov experience helped with tests.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.43 GPA, 67.4% A/AB (n=181 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.31 GPA, 64.2% A/AB (n=243 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.23 GPA, 58.5% A/AB (n=195 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Kenneth Mayer, John Coleman

The course involved a lot of reading, which one student found overwhelming, while another noted that the tests were really hard and advised taking the class with someone else.

Past student reviews · John Coleman

Lectures were easy to understand and recorded for those who missed class, with exams based on both the lectures and the textbook.

Topics

  • Basic institutions and processes of American government
  • Constitutional structures, parties, interest groups, and elections
  • Policy formation and policy content

Skills

  • Understand American political institutions
  • Analyze issues and policies in U.S. politics

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.17 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
POLISCI 104 · Spring 2027

Introduction to American Politics and Government

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:778:015858",
    "course_id": "POLISCI 104",
    "course_uid": "course_46931ba805a3f9e7507d5db1",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "015858",
    "source_subject_id": "778",
    "title": "Introduction to American Politics and Government",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "b2897491a27d9672b4c29017e5256ca0b97019168a11e3444b4f26491a400999",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}