In political science, historical rankings of Presidents of the United States are surveys conducted in order to construct rankings of the success of individuals who have served as President of the United States. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists or popular opinion. The rankings focus on the presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults.
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George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt are consistently ranked at the top of the lists. Often ranked just below those three are Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. The remaining places in the top 10 are often rounded out by Harry S. Truman, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower, and Andrew Jackson. The bottom ten often include Warren G. Harding, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison, Millard Fillmore, Ulysses Grant, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Richard Nixon. Both William Henry Harrison (32 days) and James A. Garfield (incapacitated after 119 days) died shortly after taking office, and are therefore sometimes omitted from the rankings as a result. It is not clear if their lower quartile rankings are meant to show that they are considered "poor" performers or rather that they have no record by which to rank them any higher.
Political scientist Walter Dean Burnham noted the "dichotomous or schizoid profiles" of presidents, which can make some hard to classify. Historian Alan Brinkley said, "There are presidents who could be considered both failures and great or near great (for example, Nixon)". James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon, "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?"[1]
David H. Donald, noted biographer of Lincoln, relates that when he met John F. Kennedy in 1962, Kennedy voiced his deep dissatisfaction and resentment with historians who had rated some of his predecessors. Kennedy said, "No one has a right to grade a President—even poor James Buchanan—who has not sat in his chair, examined the mail and information that came across his desk, and learned why he made his decisions."[2]
The 1948 poll was conducted by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. of Harvard University.[3] The 1962 survey was also conducted by Schlesinger, who surveyed 75 historians.[4] Schlesinger's son Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. conducted another poll in 1996.[5]
The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents also gives the results of the 1982 survey, a poll of 49 historians conducted by the Chicago Tribune. A notable difference from the 1962 Schlesinger poll was the ranking of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was ranked #22 in 1962, but was ranked #9 in the 1982 survey.
The Siena Research Institute of Siena College conducted surveys in 1982, 1990, 1994, 2002, and 2010. The 1994 survey placed only two Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, above 80 points, and placed two Presidents, Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding, below 50 points.[6][7]
The 1996 column shows the results from a poll conducted from 1989 to 1996 by William J. Ridings, Jr. and Stuart B. McIver, and published in the book Rating the Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. leaders, from the Great and Honorable to the Dishonest and Incompetent. More than 719 people took part in the poll, primarily academic historians and political scientists, although some politicians and celebrities also took part. Participants from every state were included, and emphasis was placed upon getting input from female historians and "specialists in African-American studies", as well as a few non-American historians. Poll respondents rated the Presidents in five categories (leadership qualities, accomplishments & crisis management, political skill, appointments, character & integrity), and the results were tabulated to create the overall ranking.
A 2000 survey by The Wall Street Journal consisted of an "ideologically balanced group of 132 prominent professors of history, law, and political science". This poll sought to include an equal number of liberals and conservatives in the survey, as the editors argued that previous polls were dominated by either one group or the other, but never balanced. According to the editors, this poll included responses from more women, minorities, and young professors than the 1996 Schlesinger poll. The editors noted that the results of their poll were "remarkably similar" to the 1996 Schlesinger poll, with the main difference in the 2000 poll being the lower rankings for the 1960s presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy, and higher ranking of President Ronald Reagan at #8. Franklin Roosevelt still ranked in the top three.
Another presidential poll was conducted by The Wall Street Journal in 2005, with James Lindgren of Northwestern University Law School for the Federalist Society.[8] As in the 2000 survey, the editors sought to balance the opinions of liberals and conservatives, adjusting the results "to give Democratic- and Republican-leaning scholars equal weight." Franklin D. Roosevelt still ranked in the top-three, but editor James Taranto noted that Democratic-leaning scholars rated George W. Bush the sixth-worst president of all time, while Republican scholars rated him the sixth-best, giving him a split-decision rating of "average".
A 2006 Siena College poll of 744 professors reported the following results:[9]
Thomas Kelly, professor emeritus of American studies at Siena College, said: "President Bush would seem to have small hope for high marks from the current generation of practicing historians and political scientists. In this case, current public opinion polls actually seem to cut the President more slack than the experts do." Dr. Douglas Lonnstrom, Siena College professor of statistics and director of the Siena Research Institute, stated: "In our 2002 presidential rating, with a group of experts comparable to this current poll, President Bush ranked 23rd of 42 presidents. That was shortly after 9/11. Clearly, the professors do not think things have gone well for him in the past few years. These are the experts that teach college students today and will write the history of this era tomorrow."[9]
A 2010 Siena poll of 238 Presidential scholars found that former president George W. Bush was ranked 39th out of 43, with poor ratings in handling of the economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments and intelligence. Meanwhile, the current president, Barack Obama was ranked 15th out of 43, with high ratings for imagination, communication ability and intelligence and a low rating for background (family, education and experience).[10][11]
The C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership consists of rankings from a group of presidential historians and "professional observers of the presidency"[12] who ranked presidents in a number of categories initially in 2000 and more recently in 2009.[13][14] With some minor variation, both surveys found that historians consider Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt the three best presidents by a wide margin and William Henry Harrison (to a lesser extent), Warren G. Harding, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan the worst.
In 2008, The Times newspaper asked eight of its own "top international and political commentators" to rank all 42 US presidents "in order of greatness".[15]
In 2011, through the agency of its United States Presidency Centre [USPC], the Institute for the Study of the Americas (located in the University of London’s School of Advanced Study) released the first ever U.K. academic survey to rate U.S. presidents. This polled the opinion of U.K. specialists in U.S. history and political studies to assess presidential performance and produced an overall rating on the basis of the responses. They also gave an interim assessment of Barack Obama, but his unfinished presidency was not included in the survey (had he been included, he would have attained eighth place overall).[16][17]
Note: Click the "sort" icon at the head of each column to view the rankings for each survey in numerical order.
No | President | Political party | Schlesinger 1948 poll rank | Schlesinger 1962 poll rank | 1982 Murray-Blessing survey | Chicago Tribune 1982 poll rank | Siena 1982 poll rank | Siena 1990 poll rank | Siena 1994 poll rank | Ridings- McIver 1996 poll rank | Schlesinger 1996 poll rank | CSPAN 1999 poll rank | Wall Street Journal 2000 poll rank | Siena 2002 poll rank | Wall Street Journal 2005 poll rank | Times 2008 poll rank | CSPAN 2009 poll rank | Siena 2010 poll rank | USPC 2011 poll rank | Aggregate ranking [18] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | George Washington | None | 02 | 02 | 03 | 03 | 04 | 04 | 04 | 03 | 02 | 03 | 01 | 04 | 01 | 02 | 02 | 04 | 03 | 03 |
02 | John Adams | Federalist | 09 | 10 | 09 | 14 (tie) | 10 | 14 | 12 | 14 | 11 | 16 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 17 | 17 | 12 | 12 |
03 | Thomas Jefferson | Dem-Repub | 05 | 05 | 04 | 05 | 02 | 03 | 05 | 04 | 04 | 07 | 04 | 05 | 04 | 04 | 07 | 05 | 04 | 04 |
04 | James Madison | Dem-Repub | 14 | 12 | 14 | 17 | 09 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 17 | 18 | 15 | 09 | 17 | 15 | 20 | 06 | 14 | 13 |
05 | James Monroe | Dem-Repub | 12 | 18 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 11 | 15 | 13 | 15 | 14 | 16 | 08 | 16 | 21 | 14 | 07 | 13 | 14 (tie) |
06 | John Quincy Adams | Dem-Repub | 11 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 17 | 25 | 16 | 19 | 19 | 20 | 18 |
07 | Andrew Jackson | Democratic | 06 | 06 | 07 | 06 | 13 | 09 | 11 | 08 | 05 | 13 | 06 | 13 | 10 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 09 | 08 (tie) |
08 | Martin Van Buren | Democratic | 15 | 17 | 20 | 18 | 21 | 21 | 22 | 21 | 21 | 30 | 23 | 24 | 27 | 40 | 31 | 23 | 27 | 24 |
09 | William Henry Harrison | Whig | – | – | – | 38 | 26 | 35 | 28 | 35 | – | 37 | – | 36 | – | 39 | 39 | 35 | – | 38 (tie) |
10 | John Tyler | Whig | 22 | 25 | 28 | 29 | 34 | 33 | 34 | 34 | 32 | 36 | 34 | 37 | 35 | 31 | 35 | 37 | 37 | 36 |
11 | James K. Polk | Democratic | 10 | 08 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 11 | 09 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 09 | 09 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 10 |
12 | Zachary Taylor | Whig | 25 | 24 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 34 | 33 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 31 | 34 | 33 | 28 | 29 | 33 | 33 | 35 |
13 | Millard Fillmore | Whig | 24 | 26 | 29 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 35 | 36 | 31 | 35 | 35 | 38 | 36 | 33 | 37 | 38 | 35 | 38 (tie) |
14 | Franklin Pierce | Democratic | 27 | 28 | 31 | 35 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 37 | 33 | 39 | 37 | 39 | 38 | 41 | 40 | 40 | 39 | 40 |
15 | James Buchanan | Democratic | 26 | 29 | 33 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 38 | 41 | 39 | 41 | 40 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 40 | 42 |
16 | Abraham Lincoln | Republican/National Union | 01 | 01 | 01 | 01 | 03 | 02 | 02 | 01 | 01 | 01 | 02 | 02 | 02 | 01 | 01 | 03 | 02 | 01 |
17 | Andrew Johnson | Democratic/National Union | 19 | 23 | 32 | 32 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 39 | 37 | 40 | 36 | 42 | 37 | 24 | 41 | 43 | 36 | 41 |
18 | Ulysses S. Grant | Republican | 28 | 30 | 35 | 30 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 38 | 34 | 33 | 32 | 35 | 29 | 18 | 23 | 26 | 29 | 37 |
19 | Rutherford B. Hayes | Republican | 13 | 14 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 23 | 26 | 22 | 27 | 24 | 27 | 33 | 31 | 30 | 25 |
20 | James A. Garfield | Republican | – | – | – | 33 | 25 | 30 | 26 | 30 | – | 29 | – | 33 | – | 34 | 28 | 27 | – | 29 (tie) |
21 | Chester A. Arthur | Republican | 17 | 21 | 26 | 24 | 24 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 26 | 32 | 26 | 30 | 26 | 22 | 32 | 25 | 32 | 28 |
22/24 | Grover Cleveland | Democratic | 08 | 11 | 17 | 13 | 18 | 17 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 17 | 12 | 20 | 12 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 19 |
23 | Benjamin Harrison | Republican | 21 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 31 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 19 | 31 | 27 | 32 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 34 | 34 | 33 |
25 | William McKinley | Republican | 18 | 15 | 18 | 10 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 19 | 14 | 17 | 16 | 21 | 17 | 20 (tie) |
26 | Theodore Roosevelt | Republican | 07 | 07 | 05 | 04 | 05 | 05 | 03 | 05 | 06 | 04 | 05 | 03 | 05 | 05 | 04 | 02 | 05 | 05 |
27 | William Howard Taft | Republican | 16 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 29 | 24 | 24 | 25 | 22 (tie) |
28 | Woodrow Wilson | Democratic | 04 | 04 | 06 | 07 | 06 | 06 | 06 | 06 | 07 | 06 | 11 | 06 | 11 | 10 | 09 | 08 | 06 | 06 |
29 | Warren G. Harding | Republican | 29 | 31 | 36 | 37 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 41 | 39 | 38 | 37 | 40 | 39 | 35 | 38 | 41 | 38 | 43 |
30 | Calvin Coolidge | Republican | 23 | 27 | 30 | 27 | 30 | 31 | 36 | 33 | 30 | 27 | 25 | 29 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 29 | 28 | 31 |
31 | Herbert Hoover | Republican | 20 | 19 | 21 | 21 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 24 | 35 | 34 | 29 | 31 | 31 | 36 | 34 | 36 | 26 | 29 (tie) |
32 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Democratic | 03 | 03 | 02 | 02 | 01 | 01 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 02 | 03 | 01 | 03 | 03 | 03 | 01 | 01 | 02 |
33 | Harry S. Truman | Democratic | – | 09 | 08 | 08 | 07 | 07 | 07 | 07 | 08 | 05 | 07 | 07 | 07 | 07 | 05 | 09 | 07 | 07 |
34 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Republican | – | 22 | 11 | 09 | 11 | 12 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 09 | 09 | 10 | 08 | 06 | 08 | 10 | 10 | 08 (tie) |
35 | John F. Kennedy | Democratic | – | – | 13 | 14 (tie) | 08 | 10 | 10 | 15 | 12 | 08 | 18 | 14 | 15 | 11 | 06 | 11 | 15 | 11 |
36 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Democratic | – | – | 10 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 14 | 10 | 17 | 15 | 18 | 12 | 11 | 16 | 11 | 14 (tie) |
37 | Richard Nixon | Republican | – | – | 34 | 34 | 28 | 25 | 23 | 32 | 36 | 25 | 33 | 26 | 32 | 38 | 27 | 30 | 23 | 32 |
38 | Gerald Ford | Republican | – | – | 24 | 23 | 23 | 27 | 32 | 27 | 28 | 23 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 22 | 28 | 24 | 26 |
39 | Jimmy Carter | Democratic | – | – | 25 | 26 | 33 | 24 | 25 | 19 | 27 | 22 | 30 | 25 | 34 | 32 | 25 | 32 | 18 | 27 |
40 | Ronald Reagan | Republican | – | – | – | – | 16 * | 22 | 20 | 26 | 25 | 11 | 08 | 16 | 06 | 08 | 10 | 18 | 08 | 17 |
41 | George H. W. Bush | Republican | – | – | – | – | – | 18 * | 31 | 22 | 24 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 18 | 22 | 22 | 22 (tie) |
42 | Bill Clinton | Democratic | – | – | – | – | – | – | 16 * | 23 * | 20 * | 21 * | 24 * | 18 | 22 | 23 | 15 | 13 | 19 | 20 (tie) |
43 | George W. Bush | Republican | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 23 * | 19 * | 37 * | 36 | 39 | 31 | 34 |
44 | Barack Obama | Democratic | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 15 * | – | 14 (tie) * |
Total in survey | 29 | 31 | 36 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 41 | 39 | 41 | 39 | 42 | 40 | 42 | 42 | 43 | 40 | 43 |
* Ranking calculated before President had completed his term in office
Because Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms as both the 22nd and 24th President, the total number of Presidents in each poll is at least one less than the number of the most recently serving President in the poll. Because of their short time in office, Presidents William Henry Harrison (32 days) and James A. Garfield (incapacitated after 119 days) are sometimes omitted from these polls. It is not clear if their lower quartile rankings are meant to show that they are considered "poor" performers or rather that they have no record by which to rank them any higher.
The surveys have been criticized for the way they have been organized.[19] At times, the surveys have had low responses.[19] The issue of the validity of the rankings has been of special interest to historians and political scientists, who have tried to specify the relative importance of personality, leadership, issues and partisanship. It has also been argued that those surveyed have tended to select their choices from personal preference rather than from a neutral perspective.[20] Quantitative ranking by groups of scholars has been in favor in recent decades, displacing the traditional methods of evaluation by individual writers as typified by Bailey (1966) and most biographers.
The Murray-Blessing 1982 survey[21] asked historians whether they were liberal or conservative on domestic, social and economic issues. The table below shows that the two groups had only small differences in ranking the best and worst presidents. Both groups agreed on the composition of nine of the top ten Presidents (and were split over the inclusion of either Lyndon B. Johnson or Dwight D. Eisenhower), and six of the worst seven (split over Jimmy Carter or Calvin Coolidge). Conservatives placed Democrat Harry S. Truman at a higher ranking.
Rank | Liberals (n=190) | Conservatives (n=50) |
---|---|---|
1 | Abraham Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln |
2 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Washington |
3 | Washington | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
4 | Jefferson | Jefferson |
5 | Theodore Roosevelt | Theodore Roosevelt |
6 | Wilson | Jackson |
7 | Jackson | Truman |
8 | Truman | Wilson |
9 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Eisenhower |
10 | John Adams | John Adams |
... | ||
30 | Coolidge | Carter |
31 | Pierce | Nixon |
32 | Buchanan | Pierce |
33 | Andrew Johnson | Andrew Johnson |
34 | Grant | Buchanan |
35 | Nixon | Grant |
36 | Harding | Harding |
In 2002, Ronald Walters, former director of the University of Maryland's African American Leadership Institute, stated that Presidents ranked by how each President balanced the interests of majority interests and the interests of excluded groups was practical in respect to American debate on racial politics. Presidents have traditionally been ranked on personal qualities and their leadership ability to solve problems that move the nation in a positive direction. Walters stated there was a qualitative difference between white and African American intellectuals in evaluating Presidents. In the 1996 New York Times Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. poll, 31 white historians and one black historian ranked Presidents on differing categories of greatness. In a survey done by Professor Hanes Walton, Jr., and Professor Robert Smith, in their text book American Politics And The African American Quest For Universal Freedom, 44 African American political scientists and historians ranked Presidents in terms of racial attitudes and racial legislation proposed.[22] Individual President's attitudes, policies, and perspectives were historically ranked in five categories: White Supremacist; Racist; Racially Neutral; Racially Ambivalent; Antiracist.[23]
In addition to conducting a historian survey, C-Span also conducted a presidential leadership survey for viewers, taken in December 1999, which 1145 people participated in.[24]
An ABC News poll about presidential greatness, taken 16–20 February 2000, asked 1,012 adults in the US, "Who do you think was the greatest American president?"[25]
A Washington College poll about presidential greatness, taken February 11, 2005, asked 800 adults in the US, "Thinking about all the presidents of the United States throughout history to the present, who would you say was America's greatest president?"[26]
A Gallup poll about presidential greatness, taken February 2–5, 2011, asked 1015 adults in the US, "Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?"[27]
A Rasmussen Reports poll taken June 13–24 of 2007 asked 1,000 randomly selected adults to rate America's presidents. Six presidents—George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy—were rated favorably by at least 80% of respondents. [28]
President | Favorable | Unfavorable |
---|---|---|
George Washington | 94 | 2 |
Abraham Lincoln | 92 | 4 |
Thomas Jefferson | 89 | 4 |
Theodore Roosevelt | 84 | 8 |
Franklin D. Roosevelt | 81 | 12 |
John F. Kennedy | 80 | 13 |
John Adams | 74 | 9 |
James Madison | 73 | 8 |
Ronald Reagan | 72 | 22 |
Dwight D. Eisenhower | 72 | 15 |
Harry S. Truman | 70 | 14 |
Andrew Jackson | 69 | 14 |
Gerald Ford | 62 | 26 |
John Quincy Adams | 59 | 7 |
Ulysses S. Grant | 58 | 24 |
George H.W. Bush | 57 | 41 |
Jimmy Carter | 57 | 34 |
William Taft | 57 | 15 |
Woodrow Wilson | 56 | 19 |
Bill Clinton | 55 | 41 |
James Monroe | 49 | 10 |
Herbert Hoover | 48 | 34 |
Lyndon B. Johnson | 45 | 42 |
Andrew Johnson | 45 | 26 |
Chester Arthur | 43 | 17 |
James A. Garfield | 42 | 16 |
William McKinley | 42 | 24 |
George W. Bush | 41 | 59 |
Grover Cleveland | 40 | 26 |
Calvin Coolidge | 38 | 31 |
Rutherford B. Hayes | 38 | 19 |
Richard Nixon | 32 | 60 |
Benjamin Harrison | 30 | 35 |
Warren Harding | 29 | 33 |
James Buchanan | 28 | 32 |
James Polk | 27 | 21 |
Zachary Taylor | 26 | 18 |
Martin Van Buren | 23 | 19 |
William Henry Harrison | 21 | 16 |
Franklin Pierce | 17 | 25 |
Millard Fillmore | 17 | 25 |
John Tyler | 9 | 15 |
These polls evaluate Presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower and later succession.
A Quinnipiac University poll, taken May 23–30, 2006, asked 1,534 registered American voters to pick the worst U.S. President of the last 61 years.[29]
"Which of these eleven presidents we have had since World War II would you consider the worst president — Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Senior, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush?"
A USA Today/Gallup Poll, taken December 8–10, 2006, asked 1009 adults in the US, "How do you think each of the following presidents will go down in history—as an outstanding president, above average, average, below average, or poor?"
Result | George W. Bush | Bill Clinton | George H.W. Bush | Ronald Reagan | Jimmy Carter | Gerald Ford |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. outstanding | 4% | 12% | 5% | 24% | 11% | 6% |
2. above average | 15% | 33% | 27% | 40% | 27% | 17% |
3. average | 27% | 29% | 50% | 26% | 38% | 60% |
4. below average | 25% | 15% | 10% | 6% | 13% | 9% |
5. poor | 29% | 10% | 8% | 4% | 9% | 3% |
unsure | - | - | - | 1% | 3% | 5% |
A Gallup poll, taken on November 19–21, 2010, asked Americans to say, based on what they know or remember about the nine most recent former presidents, whether they approve or disapprove of how each handled his job in office.[30]
A Vision Critical/Angus Reid poll, taken on February 18–19, 2011, asked respondents about 12 former and current presidents and whether they were a good or bad president.[31]
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