Professor Branstetter is one of the most engaging professors at UCLA. What I appreciated most about this course is how much it opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about political theory, I even became a politcal theory concentration because I loved it. The material is dense, but he goes over it so we’ll in class that you’ll always have a great understanding. He wants you to get an A, and will work with you as much as he can to help you succeed. Gives thorough feedback, fair assignments, and overall an amazing class. Would recommend over and over agin.

Very easy class. Just do the weekly journals and you're good. He even allows you to redo them as many times as you want in order to get a better grade. I didn't read half of any of the readings, and I was able to get by fine by just finding a couple of relevant quotes and going from there.

Amazing class: the usual from Branstetter. While the material is quite challenging, the lectures will help get you through it. I'd highly recommend doing all the reading, even if it's just skimming, but absolutely positively go to lecture. Nothing made sense to me toward the latter half of the quarter. The only reason I was able to end as strongly as I did was because of lecture and because I went back and corroborated it with the reading. That said, it's probably my least favorite Branstetter class. I think his East Asian PT and Comparative PT classes are way better. I think the material in those classes suit him better. Nonetheless, you will not go wrong with this class.

I cannot stress this enough, by far my favorite professor at UCLA. Professor Branstetter is an awesome lecturer, has super engaging materials, and makes you think about political science from a different perspective. He is also very approachable and accommodating to all of his students!

7 short quizzes, SUPER easy. He drops your two lowest quiz scores. One midterm and final "exam": 8 short answers, 1 essay. The midterm and final are however long you think is appropriate to explain the question. I incorporated a ton of memes and examples in my final exam and got a 100! His class truly is a break from my other classes. It's very fun and insightful!

Professor Branstetter is one of the best professors I have ever had. I am so lucky I got to take this course in the summer because of the intimate setting. You can tell he is truly passionate about his work. I know that someday he is going to be a great lecturer. The class is very interesting and he makes theory fun while engaging in conversation with the class. You can succeed in this class as long as you go to lectures. Literally, everything he lectures about is on the tests. If you get the chance to take him, I highly recommend that you do!

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

I took M115C with John and he is so awesome! He does require mini essays and does pop quizzes but he tries to give you warning and it wasn't bad at all! He is young and energetic and wants to see you succeed! Just go to class and participate, which is easy because he welcomes all answers and gives lots of time for discussion. For me the class was stress free and the mini essays for me were just making a quick thesis relevant to some reading we discussed and kind of rambled for a bit until I fulfilled the word requirement and supported my thesis. I got 95% or higher on all of them and an A+ in the class. John is a great guy and if you're interested in Confucius theory he is an expert! I took his citizenship class and loved it.

I took POL SCI 119 Special Studies in Political Theory: Confucian Political Theory in China and Japan with Professor Branstetter Fall 2017.
The material in the course was hard to grasp but Professor Branstetter successfully taught the material the best it could have ever been taught. It revolves around the comparison of schools of thought which is hard to learn in ten weeks. The quizzes forced us to read the material and if it were hard, he would mention there was a quiz beforehand along with hints on the quiz. I believe this class makes you think on the spot for quizzes and the tests because it makes you apply the knowledge rather than just retain it. Taking the next class with Professor Branstetter in Winter because the lectures were just that good! He also provides his ppt lectures and lecture outline notes on CCLE so you don't really have to type notes in class, just listen!

I took the Confucian Political Theory class with him, and Branstetter is an amazing professor. He clearly loved the material he was teaching, and his passion came through in every lecture. The readings were pretty dense and hard to understand, but the professor did a great job explaining them and providing clarity about the subject. I thought the exams were reasonable, and while there are a lot of pop quizzes, it's not hard to consistently get 4/5 right if you read. Overall, Branstetter is one of the best instructors in the department, and I'd highly reccomend taking a class with him if you have the chance.

i'm writing this review because i love branstetter so much and i hate that he doesn't have any reviews. he is such a great professor, incredibly knowledgable and you can tell he's passionate about what he teaches, he is so so helpful, offers so much office hours and time to talk with him and go over your papers. also the class is just 3 papers. his lectures are engaging so i didn't even mind going to class, which isn't really mandatory but really helpful when it comes to writing your papers. he is really approachable, pretty funny, and overall one of my favorite professors i've had. i'm taking 2 classes with him and i love them both.