Timothy Frye

This is a great class, and as a poli sci major, it was my favorite class so far at Columbia. The material felt incredibly relevant and Prof. Frye taught in a very engaging way. The readings are almost always interesting, and Frye does a great job of maintaining a lively lecture. One important thing to note, though, is that he does cold call on people in the class. He reads from a list and asks questions about the readings, which can be a little scary, but he allows for each student to have a few chances to not know the material without it hurting your participation grade. The workload is also pretty substantial, so that's also something to keep in mind.

I took this course because it was required for my major. Words cannot express how much of a drag it was to go to this class. Professor Frye is a great guy and is very accomplished in academia when it comes to comparative politics. However, if you dislike theory-based courses, you will hate this course. The discussions sections did not help either. The readings were long and dense. My TA really didn't break down how the exams would be and we didn't know what IDs would be on the exam. Yet, the exams were not that bad if you read and studied beforehand. Overall, the class was not great at all and should not be an intro course.

Political Economy of Development is an excellent class. Professor Frye is hugely knowledgeable and has clearly taken time to construct a course that isn't too rigid in the topics it covers, but is also much more than a superficial review of the topic literature. Frye lectures for most of the class, with some diversions for questions and debate. He is not the best lecturer in the world, but he is capable. Most importantly, you can tell he really sees the info as valuable and worth learning. The only issue is when wannabe smarty pants try to over complicate things with their comments. Frye is almost too nice to suggest they stop derailing the knowledge train. It is important to stay up to date with the readings, as he will call on people in class to get a quick tidbit about what the reading was about, or what the implication of a concept might be. It can be a little nerve-racking, but he really doesn't seem to hold it against you if you don't know and there were some pretty funny deflections in class. Overall, I highly recommend this course. It shows you the many sides to political science scholarship in a way that will get you thinking globally and pragmatically.

n/a 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2023 Course: POLSUN3951_001_2023_3-COMPARATIVEPOLITICSSEMINAR : POLSUN3951_001_2023_3 - COMPARATIVE POLITICS SEMINAR Instructor: Timothy Frye

200+ pages of reading per week. 2 2 to 3 page essays not graded well and with enough comments on how to improve. Midterm and Final.

I'll echo the sentiments of the last two reviewers -- Frye is a good man, an excellent teacher, and a very fair professor. If you're into Russia, taking Frye's class is a must, as he is a pretty big scholar on the post-Communist state. If you're a freshman or sophomore looking to take this class, I might recommend holding off until you have at least 3 or 4 other PoliSci classes under your belt because the development stuff is a bit trickier than your general intro class. The workload is pretty standard, though you really really need to get started on the research paper way in advance if you want it to come out decently. Speaking from experience, you could write it the night before but (as you could imagine) that's really stressful. Be sure to find a group of people you can split the readings with and start splitting up the material from Day 1. The summaries will be invaluable come midterm and final season and save you a lot of anxiety and time. Overall, a good class but just be sure you're up to the challenge (albeit small).

I agree with the last reviewer - give this man a silver nugget. Frye's Political Economy of Development class is well-structured, informative, fair, and engaging. The class basically seeks to explain development outcomes of different countries by looking at the interactions between politics and economics. It is a poli sci course, so there are no econ formulas, but it will be very helpful to understand basic macroeconomic theory before taking this class. As far as the class goes, it's largely theoretical with a big emphasis on how to conduct a good comparative study between different countries or regions. During the first semester, you learn different theories for development, based around foreign aid, natural resources, institutions (democracy), corruption, globalization, and finally social capital. During the second semester, you study different regions in depth (Latin America, China, Africa, and post-Communist Russia, Frye's specialty) while seeking to apply the development theories you've learned. The class is organized very logically, and if you keep up with the syllabus you should learn a lot. As far as actually succeeding in the class, the key is to keep up with the readings and to be able to summarize each of them, because 1) the lectures are basically a discussion about the readings, and 2) the final and midterm are based around the readings. The final paper is complet…

This man deserves at LEAST a silver nugget. His class on political economy of development was engaging, informative, and well-structured. We covered a breadth of topics, which I felt, gave me a good introduction to the topic. Frye himself is approachable, articulate, and smart. He lectures alongside sparse powerpoints for most of the class--everything is well structured and organized. If I were interested in Russia I would take the class he is teaching next fall.

Why corruption levels differ in different countries

engaging, interactive lectures and interesting readings (long!) on all kinds of political problems of economic development. frye has a lot of funny little stories to tell and gives a great overview of the main topics. because the topic is so large, the syllabus seems crammed sometimes but it's a great class overall, especially when you're interested in both econ and poli-sci. the midterm and the final are IDs and essay questions and sum up to less than half your final grade. you have to write two papers that you can hand in whenever. Frye and the TAs give quite a bit of help so it's doable. if you don't mind the reading and that you have to come up with your own ideas once in a while, take the class!