Rating 20 th -Century British Prime Ministers

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.