Spring 2027

Introduction to Political Theory

Explores core problems of political life, including obligation, justice, and the relationship between equality and liberty, using ancient and modern sources.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Michelle Schwarze3.3/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Michelle Schwarze

The course is reading-heavy with dense texts, but exams are mostly multiple-choice and generally easy. Grades rely on two in-class essays and two exams, with essay revisions allowed to help manage the workload.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Analyze and explain arguments made about important political concepts by selected thinkers in the history of political thought.

  • Assess political and ethical theories.

  • Analyze contemporary political arguments through course concepts.

  • Develop skills of critical reasoning, reading, and analysis.

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

None

  • None
POLISCI 160 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
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.15/5 from 39 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 3.5/5 raw quality · 3.0/5 difficulty · 25 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Michelle Schwarze

Michelle Schwarze taught a reading-heavy course where students found the material dense but manageable because she clarified key concepts in lectures. Assessments included two in-class essays, which allowed revisions, and two exams that students generally described as easy or short. She encouraged group discussions and maintained a caring demeanor, remembering student names in large sections.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.42 GPA, 70.4% A/AB (n=142 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.71 GPA, 92.6% A/AB (n=163 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.60 GPA, 84.0% A/AB (n=188 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · John Zumbrunnen, Daniel Kapust

Historical reviews describe John Zumbrunnen’s class as elementary, featuring weekly online quizzes and three short papers without a final exam. Students found Daniel Kapust’s lectures funny and engaging, with weekly discussion posts, peer responses, and two main essays alongside a final essay. Reviewers noted that while readings were extensive, participation in discussions and strong writing skills were sufficient for success.

DANIEL KAPUST is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2024, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

HOWARD SCHWEBER is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Spring 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOHN ZUMBRUNNEN is recorded teaching in Fall 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHELLE SCHWARZE is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025. 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 303Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 307Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 308Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 532Classroom Instruction0 / 00
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 309Classroom Instruction0 / 210
DIS 310Classroom Instruction0 / 210

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 · Michelle Schwarze

Professor Schwarze delivers well-structured, engaging lectures and builds rapport by remembering student names. She explains complex material clearly, making the course feel accessible despite the reading load.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.71 GPA, 92.6% A/AB (n=163 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.60 GPA, 84.0% A/AB (n=188 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.50 GPA, 78.5% A/AB (n=163 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Michelle Schwarze

The course is reading-heavy with dense texts, but exams are mostly multiple-choice and generally easy. Grades rely on two in-class essays and two exams, with essay revisions allowed to help manage the workload.

Past student reviews · Michelle Schwarze

One student looked forward to weekly lectures and found in-class essays easy and fairly graded. Another student taking the class online found lectures general and had to seek out other explanations to understand the material.

Topics

  • Obligation, justice, equality, and liberty
  • Ancient and modern political sources

Skills

  • Analyze arguments from political thinkers, assess theories, and develop critical reasoning and reading skills.

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.

7 earlier forecasts · 0.12 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 160 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Political Theory

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": "1274:778:015871",
    "course_id": "POLISCI 160",
    "course_uid": "course_f316b1c0bcfe1eba601b7ab6",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "015871",
    "source_subject_id": "778",
    "title": "Introduction to Political Theory",
    "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": "6222a44981d519ee949ea9efa43ba6178d48607e8aca5b3c9abe00e7e4b842dc",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}