2006/04/11 by Kevin Theakston, Mark Gill · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Political and Economic history of UK and US
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1467-856x.2006.00220.x
openalex publication_date 2006/04/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/25
This article reports the results of a 2004 survey of academics, specialising in British politics and/or modern British history, asking them to rate all the 20 th -century British prime ministers in terms of their success in office and also asking them to assess the key characteristics of successful prime ministers. The top-ranked PMs were (in order) Attlee, Churchill, Lloyd George and Thatcher. In contrast to the many and regular surveys of American academics ranking US presidents, this is the first large-scale exercise of this type in British political science. Analysis of the findings in terms of the characteristics of the survey respondents helps shed light on the survey results.