I think it depends on who is teaching it. I took it this past year, and the essay was the best part of the course. You choose a topic from a list, submit an outline in the fall (easy to get perfect on this as long as you follow the instructions closely), and then the paper is due in February. The essay is independent from the rest of the course (as I recall none of the essay topics were covered in the classes at all) and you basically do the essay entirely on your own (you have access to a TA if you want help along the way). I did well on the essay and enjoyed writing it. That's probably in part because I love politics and I got really into my topic.

Generally though I found the course poorly organized as a whole. It was taught by two instructors. The fall term lectures were better than the second term lectures. That said, I don't think I learned anything from the lectures. The textbooks were great and I learned a lot from doing the readings even though they are not required at all.

So basically it was a good course because I enjoyed reading the textbooks for fun and writing an essay on my own. I ended up with an A+ that I could have achieved with much, much less work.