Spring 2027

Introduction to Comparative Politics (honors)

An honors introduction to comparative politics analyzing political institutions, processes, and outcomes at the national level using key concepts, theories, methods, and country case studies.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Yoshiko Herrera

The honors course required rigorous, heavy reading and high-level discussions. Weekly quizzes demanded consistent preparation, and the overall workload was described as challenging for a full class load.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Gain knowledge about politics in different countries, including differences in democratic and non-democratic rule, differences in political institutions, economic policies, social cleavages, and salient contemporary political issues across countries.

  • Learn about concepts and theories from political science used in the study of politics in different countries.

  • Learn about different methodological approaches in studying politics, including how to develop a casual research question, and how comparisons of cases can be useful for testing theories.

  • Develop research and writing skills by working throughout the semester on a research paper.

  • Develop communication and presentation skills by engaging in class discussion and presenting research at the end of the semester.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Declared in an Honors program. Not open to students with credit forPOLI SCI 120

    • Declared in an Honors program
    • not eligible with
    take all
POLISCI 182 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
  • All of
    • Declared in an Honors program
    • Not eligible with

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

YOSHIKO HERRERA is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, 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

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Yoshiko Herrera

Students found Dr. Herrera’s discussions engaging and her course structure effective. Many appreciated her encouragement and availability outside of class for support.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.43 GPA, 68.2% A/AB (n=22 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.72 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=25 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.68 GPA, 86.4% A/AB (n=22 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Yoshiko Herrera

The honors course required rigorous, heavy reading and high-level discussions. Weekly quizzes demanded consistent preparation, and the overall workload was described as challenging for a full class load.

Past student reviews · Yoshiko Herrera

Several students found grading strict and inconsistent, noting that points were docked for minor errors or mismatched expectations. The big research paper was difficult, with some feeling instructions were unclear until after assignments were due.

Topics

  • Political institutions, processes, and outcomes at the national level
  • Democratic and non-democratic rule, economic policies, social cleavages, and contemporary issues
  • Key concepts, theories, methods, and country case studies

Skills

  • Comparative analysis of political institutions, processes, and outcomes
  • Methodological approaches in studying politics and developing research questions
  • Research and writing skills through a semester-long paper
  • Communication and presentation skills

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

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.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

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

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "38e734567e03f4a4d22f1479593ed2075da09a51e80e03b5d849689290b7385b",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}