9/18 Systems of Rule: Democracies, Authoritarianism, and Supranational Governance

Administrative Announcements

• Classroom Event Reminder: Students must vacate the classroom by $5$ PM due to an event requiring a building scan. The instructor will not be able to stay after class to chat; discussions can be moved towards their office.

• October $2$ Class Relocation: The class on October $2$ will be held at the Thompson Conference Center Auditorium. Directions will be provided.

• Literature Comparison Assignment: This assignment is due next Thursday.

  • Topic Flexibility: Students are initially encouraged to start with a broad policy area (e.g., social policy, health policy) and then narrow it down for subsequent parts of the assignment. However, if a student has a specific topic in mind that doesn't cleanly fit into one of these initial broad categories, it is acceptable to pursue that topic. The instructor will not enforce adherence to the initial broad umbrella chosen for the preliminary exploration.

• Lecture Slides: Slides will now be posted on Canvas before class, typically around $3:15$ PM, before the instructor packs up. This is a change based on student feedback.

  • Previous Policy Rationale: Historically, slides were posted after class to incentivize attendance and engagement. The lectures include valuable anecdotes, examples, and discussions that are not fully captured by the slides alone.

  • Reconsideration: The instructor is willing to listen to feedback and understands the helpfulness of pre-posted slides. However, if attendance and engagement decline, this practice may be revised.

• Grades: Grades for the previous written assignments are complete and will be published on Canvas after today's lecture. This timing is to prevent distraction during class, as the instructor noted that publishing them before class could occupy the first $30$ minutes of students' attention.

  • Grading Fairness: Compared to other written assignments, these were graded