POLI7808 · Political Science
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences
The course investigates the wave of collapsed dictatorships in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. While some regime changes are relatively peaceful, many are violent as protest politics from below confronts official coercion from above. The class is especially interested in cases where coercion was tried and failed to keep an authoritarian regime in power. The course also examines subsequent efforts to build new democratic regimes, which in some places succeeded, but in other places led to new forms of authoritarianism. Case studies are drawn from around the world, with a particular focus on the Communist experience.
Course experience
Averages use the original five-point historical evaluation scale.
Organization
3.8 / 5
How well the course was organized
Challenge
4.4 / 5
How intellectually challenging students found it
Attendance
4.4 / 5
How necessary attendance was
Assignments
4.2 / 5
How helpful assignments were
Weekly effort
~5
hours per week
Estimated from the original workload response buckets. Individual sections may differ.
Instructor options
Ratings below reflect only recovered evaluations connected to this course.
Across time
Section-level results available in the recovered archive.
Fall 2023
1 section