Content was fascinating and lectures were engaging though very thorough. Definitely a high effort, high reward subject. Though it was very difficult to do well which can be demotivating at times especially when you put in a huge amount of work, I do think it’s worth tackling if you’re interested in gaining context about the current political climate (debates such as Marxism vs capitalism or conservative vs progressive) and many other things. Even though there was a lot of nuanced content it was fine because it’s really interesting and helps you understand a lot of really important things about the world you probably won’t learn about otherwise. TLDR this subject is very difficult but if you want to truly understand politics and current debates it will be eye opening and a huge perspective shift.

Lectures are very dense and can be boring if you don't enjoy theoretical politics. You have to make sure you have a good grasp of the different theoretical frameworks in order to do well in the essays. The readings are also usually a bit on the dense/archaic side and you need to rely on them/understand them well in order to get good scores on your essays. If you like trying to wrap your head around philosophical ideas, you might like this class.

DO NOT DO THIS SUBJECT. boring, lots of work, readings, dry af, lectures suck but tutorials are good. hard to do well in

Listen to the bad reviews and DON'T DO THIS SUBJECT. When I read the reviews I was like "no they're just being harsh and I like political theory so it'll be fun" but I have never hated a subject more. Clayton is lovely but those lectures are so dull and long, I stopped watching by week 5. The readings were also long and dry. Only thing I liked was the tutorials as discussions often veered off from political theory to real-life situations such as the BLM movement or Australian politics. But on the whole, I would not recommend this subject to anyone. I've never seriously considered dropping out of a subject as much as I did taking this one.

I think this was a really great introduction into political theory. As someone who didn't know a single thing about politics before entering this subject, I felt like what I learnt in this subject hangs around in my thought process still to this day. The lectures are pretty dense, but the content is amazing.

It was a good subject and I feel like I have learned things of value. Lucas is the best tutor ever.

A good introduction to the philosophical underpinnings of politics. There's a fair bit of content, but it's pretty straight forward for most weeks - readings are pretty light and the lectures cover most of the essential information.

No doubt the lectures are dense and hard to follow from week one, make sure to do your readings and by that i mean sparknotes. The lecturers and tutors are helpful , would not recommend this as a breadth, challenging subject and for the research essay , you would need to find good sources and plan early, also always do your readings as the final assessment is based on them.

Really interesting subject and a good foundation and introduction to politics. Readings were extremely dense and often difficult to link to the lecture content. The lecturer, Clayton, is engaging and knows a lot about political ideas but does talk really really fast sometimes. The tutors are really good, especially Lucas, and the feedback given on assignments was really thorough and any questions or inquiries were answered in a timely and helpful manner. Make sure you stay on top of readings from week one, and if you fall behind use the mid semester break to catch up and reinforce all the content from the first half of the semester.

Horrible subject. Lectures & readings are boring & dense. Wanted to major in politics but not anymore after this subject.