Monday, 18th February 2019
The Greatest US Presidents Ranked, according to political scientists
by Brennan Weiss
Presidential rankings tend to be subjective and divisive, but they also provide valuable insight into how historical views of presidents evolve over time.
In a recent survey, nearly 200 political science scholars ranked US presidents on a scale of 0-100, from failure (zero) to average (50) to great (100).
The totals were then averaged for each president and ranked from highest to lowest.
A majority of the 170 respondents — roughly 57% — identified as Democrats.
Just 13% were Republicans, while 27% said they were independents, and 3% selected other.
The skewed sampling plus the fact that President Donald Trump was just starting his second year in office make it difficult to accurately compare him to previous presidents.
But even among Republicans, Trump was ranked quite unfavorably.
Respondents who identified as Republicans or conservatives ranked Trump 40th out of 44 presidents.
Self-described Democrats and liberals both ranked him last.
1: Abraham Lincoln
2: George Washington
3: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
4: Teddy Roosevelt
5: Thomas Jefferson
6: Harry Truman
7: Dwight Eisenhower
8: Barack Obama
9: Ronald Reagan
10: Lyndon B. Johnson
11: Woodrow Wilson
12: James Madison
13: Bill Clinton
14: John Adams
15: Andrew Jackson
16: John F. Kennedy
17: George H.W. Bush
18: James Monroe
19: William McKinley
20: James Polk
21: Ulysses S. Grant
22: William Howard Taft
23: John Quincy Adams
24: Grover Cleveland
25: Gerald Ford
26: Jimmy Carter
27: Martin Van Buren
28: Calvin Coolidge
29: Rutherford B. Hayes
30: George W. Bush
31: Chester Arthur
32: Benjamin Harrison
33: Richard Nixon
34: James Garfield
35: Zachary Taylor
36: Herbert Hoover
37: John Tyler
38: Millard Fillmore
39: Warren Harding
40: Andrew Johnson
41: Franklin Pierce
42: William Harrison
43: James Buchanan
44: Donald Trump
Would You Like To Know More?
https://www.businessinsider.com/greatest-us-presidents-ranked-by-political-scientists-2018-2
