United States Presidency Centre
UK Survey of US Presidents
Results

Vision and Agenda Setting

Did the president have clarity of vision that enabled him to establish over-arching goals for his administration and shape the terms of political and policy discourse?

Category
Ranking
President
Score
Overall
Ranking
1
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945
9.11
1
2
Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865
8.98
2
3
Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1809
8.29
4
4
Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-1969
8.23
11
5
George Washington, 1789-1797
8.22
3
6
Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989
8.17
8
7
Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909
8.11
5
8
Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921
8.11
6
9
Andrew Jackson, 1829-1837
7.50
9
10
Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953
7.06
7
11
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961-1963
6.96
15
12
James Knox Polk, 1845-1849
6.44
16
13
John Adams, 1797-1801
6.33
12
14
William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001
6.28
19
15
James Madison, 1809-1817
6.23
14
16
Richard Milhous Nixon, 1969-1974
6.11
23
17
John Quincy Adams, 1825-1829
6.00
20
18
James Monroe, 1817-1825
5.97
13
19
William McKinley, 1897-1901
5.95
17
20
Dwight David Eisenhower, 1953-1961
5.81
10
21
George Walker Bush, 2001-2009
5.64
31
22
James Earl Carter, Jr., 1977-1981
5.60
18
23
Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889
5.44
21
24
Herbert Clark Hoover, 1929-1933
4.87
26
25
William Howard Taft, 1909-1913
4.61
25
26
Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869
4.39
36
27
Martin Van Buren, 1837-1841
4.33
27
28
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 1877-1881
4.27
30
29
Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929
4.22
28
30
Ulysses Simpson Grant, 1869-1877
4.05
29
31
George Herbert Walker Bush, 1989-1993
4.04
22
32
Gerald Rudolph Ford, 1974-1977
3.93
24
33
Zachary Taylor, 1849-1850
3.84
33
34
Chester Alan Arthur, 1881-1885
3.74
32
35
Benjamin Harrison, 1889-1893
3.68
34
36
Millard Fillmore, 1850-1853
3.50
35
37
John Tyler, 1841-1845
3.38
37
38
Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1921-1923
3.32
38
39
James Buchanan, 1857-1861
3.06
40
40
Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857
2.79
39