Ok, first of all: DO NOT take this class as a GE unless you're SURE that you're actually interested in the topic; it's definitely not worth it just for GE credit as there are tons of other, easier, more interesting classes out there to take. Even if you're a PoliSci major and aren't sure about this class, I'd say skip it and take another of the lower divs if you can (PS20 was my favorite).

That being said, if you have a PoliSci background, are actually interested in comparative politics, and know what you're getting yourself into, I think this class can be pretty rewarding. I was lowkey pretty scared after reading the other reviews on Bruinwalk, and they're honestly not too far off the mark in some cases; the amount of work in this class is totally unnecessary for a lower div. There are 4 quizzes (2 lecture/2 reading) a week, which are pretty easy to get 100% on, but the readings can sometimes be ~50 pages when there are only 1 or 2 useful concepts you need to know. Discussion participation is required, which is a bit annoying but you can generally say pretty much anything and get credit. What makes this class an absolute FUCKton of work at times is the essays, especially the 2nd one which I probably spent ~25 hours on and was full of unnecessary busywork (doing the exact same thing for 3 countries). The average for that essay? 62%. Yikes. The final was also around a 50% average... and it was multiple choice (thankfully only worth 10% of your grade). Thies knows that this class is a ton of work, and he doesn't care what people think about it, so if that isn't for you, definitely stay away. AND the class is graded on a curve, so only the top ~25% get an A/A-, meaning you're competing against everyone else in the class for those grades.

Despite all that (or maybe because of it), I learned a TON from this class, a lot of which was pretty interesting (at least for someone who was already interested in the subject). Thies clearly knows his shit, and my TA was also SUPER smart and pretty helpful in discussions (although he was a bit rude at times). Maybe I'm a nerd, but comparative politics is a pretty cool thing to study and Thies' lectures were pretty good (especially at 1.5x speed). He can apparently be kinda mean/callous, but I basically never interacted with him because the class was asynchronous and I didn't go to office hours, so I didn't really notice; people said that he was a kind of a dick if you're doing bad in his class though. Overall, I'd recommend this class to people who already like the topic/PoliSci in general and are ok with doing a lot of work at times (mainly just the 2nd/3rd essay). Otherwise, skip this one.

Oh, and I uploaded the textbook to libgen; you're welcome :)

Although I ended up doing well in the class, this guy was not very nice. His one redeeming quality was that he was an interesting lecturer at times, but that may have been a result of the interesting topic. My TA was pretty nice, but I can't speak for everyone else's experience. But back to what I was saying about how he wasn't the nicest. One time I was in about the 5th row and needed to use the restroom or take a walk because I was about to fall asleep. Either way you slice it, it is a bodily need to give me a break, either mentally or physically. I inched out of the tight tight rows in Rolfe, going slowly so I didn't bump into seated classmates. It probably took 15 seconds at most. Then this guy stopped lecturing and glared at me. I went up to him to apologize afterwards and I thought we buried the hatchet. Then, the next day he sent out an email saying "The decorum in lecture has deteriorated". First off, stop using these high and mighty words. This isn't ancient Rome. Secondly, people gotta go to the bathroom. Sorry we don't want to bump all into people as we walk, it's called respecting personal space. But he was sometimes engaging. Essay scoring was confusing, wasn't clear what they were looking for whatsoever. The prompts are deceptively simple. I lucked out, that's it. Maybe try another poli sci class, your call.

If you are a political science major, try to not take this as your first political science class. The content is interesting, but the papers are graded too harshly.

Professor has slow lectures. Thankfully you can watch them at 1.5x speed. Grading was harsh, and it was difficult to get an A. LOTS of reading, weekly quizzes on both reading and lectures. Participation during discussion sections was also graded harshly and hurt my grade incredibly. Not a fan of this class, and I would not recommend it unless you absolutely have to.

This class is probably the worst ever, not the class itself but THIES specifically. The assignments are stupid, he's mean AF, and the workload is ridiculous. There was a kid from the previous class who forgot his backpack, so he interrupted our lecture to get it back. Embarrassing right? Forgetting your backpack and then having to interrupt a whole ass lecture. WELL IF THAT ISN'T EMBARRASSING ENOUGH, Thies had the audacity to not only mock the student, but literally stop the entire lecture as the kid nervously retrieved his backpack. This happened at the beginning of the quarter, and ever since then it became blatantly obvious that Thies thinks he's above everything and everyone. Don't take this class :)

Professor Thies is, to his core, a bad professor. He cares more about making his class difficult than he does educating his students. The professor is unprepared and would tell us that he was writing assignments a week before they were due without determining whether or not it was even possible to complete them. No rubrics are provided for assignments or essays, the professor refuses to help when students attend his office hours and he is known by his students for being condescending, unhelpful and rude. If the professor were to read this review, he would likely enjoy hearing that the class is difficult. I hope he does not confuse my critique of his work as a compliment of his ability to challenge his students. I will be clear: the professor is not challenging or thoughtprovoking, he is unorganized and quite thoughtless. This class will hurt your GPA (he designed it this way; he even admitted to us that his final exam was intended to hurt our grade) and you will have gained little knowledge.

while my grade ended up being okay, this class was so unnecessarily stressful. the final was 3 parts long, with one full essay, 5 short response questions, and an analysis of graphs where you have to answer a few more questions and create tables. it all seemed like busy work
- he's a horrible lecturer, his slides were so bland and he often went on tangents and wasted a bunch of time
- readings were like 60-80 pages long each week and they were all so unbelievably boring and repetitive
- the timed lecture/reading quizzes seemed like a good idea at first since it does keep u on track but the limited amount of time (3-8 minutes long depending on number of questions) made them kinda nerve-racking. each was 1% of ur grade but if u do bad on a lot of them then it'll hurt your grade. the questions were also worded weirdly, which was annoying
- he was never clear about how he would calculate final grades. many students didn't know that the assignments were going to be curved. he also made different TA's grade different parts of the essays rather than each TA grading all of their students' essays, and made us talk to different TA's about each section they graded. it was hard to get into contact with them about our grade, which made it hard to see where you can improve on for future essays
- the essays were harshly graded and we were never given a rubric
- 60-80 pages of reading each week which is okay I guess for a PS class but I wouldn't recommend that for a GE class lol
- class average for the final was 50%
he was more accommodating and helpful than I thought, but I still don't recommend this class for anyone. if ur thinking about majoring in political science, take any other political science class first. tldr stay away from this class lol

Unquestionably the worst class I've ever taken. I had already seen all of the bad reviews before enrolling, but it was the last lower division political science class I needed to declare my major, so I figured it was worth taking. Absolutely not. Please read the reviews. Unless you plan on majoring in the Comparitive Politics concentration, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!

The workload is ridiculous. Thies made us do ~30 pages of readings before every lecture and we'd have to take a short quiz to show that we'd done the readings. THEN, we'd have to watch the lectures and take a short quiz based on the lecture. This, multiplied by the fact that there were 2 lectures a week, meant we were taking 4 QUIZZES PER WEEK. At the very least, they were short (usually around ~5 questions) but it is still way too many for any class. In addition, throughout the quarter we had to do 2 short responses to full-length documentaries, as well as 3 different papers. The papers weren't just normal essays, and were often vague and required a ridiculous amount of research. I spent over 12 hours of total time working on the second paper, and the third paper takes even longer. The third paper is assigned during finals week, and this is in addition to a 50-question multiple choice final. The final is the most brutal thing I've ever experienced in my time at UCLA. It is absurdly difficult for no reason, one of the questions on my final asked what country he used as an example in an optional zoom session that was not recorded. I literally had no way of knowing that question, and the rest of the questions weren't much better. Our class mean was a 50%. The curve was very generous but the final shouldn't have been that difficult to begin with.

As a professor, Thies is pretty bad too. He is so boring. I am grateful that I was able to put the lectures on 2x speed, otherwise I would have fallen asleep listening to him speak. The lectures themselves aren't engaging, and add very little to the actual readings. The only reason you need to watch them is because of the required lecture quizzes, and because most of the questions on the final ask you to recall the most mundane tidbits that he mentioned during the lectures. I absolutely despise this man, and I've heard he's even worse in person.

The only saving grace for this class, for me, was my TA. I really liked him and I thought he did his best to challenge us with the material and think of its applications in greater political thought. I actually think the content in this class is pretty interesting, but it's a shame that the actual course is so horrible.

This is an introductory course and yet you will do more work than you can possibly fit into your schedule. The amount of stress this class has caused me is not worth it. So, in short, to say it again: DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!!

I had a genuine interest in the topic of this class before taking it, but I got less interested as the weeks passed. The assignments were stupid, but there were no tests so no memorization of all the information (there was a lot of information). You kind of have to do the readings, and there were a lot of them. Participation is important in discussion and you need to show that you know your stuff. I went to Thies' office hours and he seemed like a nice guy, he has a sarcastic humor which I like, but he also definitely thinks he's the shit.
Overall, if you are super interested in this class, an A is possible and you will learn a lot. If not then don't take it!!

He redesigned the class for this quarter so he eliminated the impossible tests that everyone else had written about. His assignments during my quarter were ridiculously hard, as everyone else has described, and he gave very little guidance for what he was looking for. The way the class worked was that most of your grade (something like 80%) was based on 4 assignments due every 2-3 weeks and these assignments were huge papers that required very thorough research.
However, I have taken multiple classes with him and I must say that he is very responsive to feedback so I think it is fair to assume that there is a good chance that he has adjusted his course to provide more guidance/flexibility for his assignments for upcoming quarters.