Ranking New Zealand's prime ministers

Political Science

Volumn 50, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 50-85

  Sheppard, Simon ^a  

^a VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON   (New Zealand)

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EID: 22444451828     PISSN: 00323187     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. See, for example, Hedley Donovan, 'Job Specs for the Oval Office', Time, 13 December 1982, pp. 22-9.
2. New Zealand does have a tradition of prime ministerial biographies - several new ones are due to be published in 1998 - as well as books giving 'brief lives' portraits of the Prime Ministers, from William Gisborne, New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen 1840 to 1897 (London, 1897),
3. to Neale McMillan, Top of the Greasy Poll: New Zealand Prime Ministers of Recent Times (Dunedin, 1993).
4. However, political literature on the Prime Minister has tended to focus on the role of the office, see e.g. Rod Alley, 'The powers of the Prime Minister', in Hyam Gold (ed.), New Zealand Politics in Perspective 3rd ed., (Auckland, 1992), pp. 174-93,
5. or on the effect of party political leadership on election campaigns (see e.g. Peter Aimer, 'Leaders and Outcomes: the Clark Factor in 1996', in Jonathan Boston et. al. (eds.), From Campaign to Coalition: The 1996 MMP Election (Palmerston North, 1997), pp. 129-44.
6. One interesting departure can be found in John Henderson, 'Labour's Modern Prime Ministers and the Party: a Study of Contrasting Political Styles', in Margaret Clark (ed.), The Labour Party after 75 years (Wellington, 1992), pp. 98-117. This, however, was an attempt to classify selected Prime Ministers according to a specific political 'type' rather than according to the success or failure of their terms of office.
7. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 'The Ultimate Approval Rating', The New York Times Magazine, 15 December 1996, pp. 46-51.
8. Reagan partisans have been at pains to defend their man from the judgment of historians; see Hugh Sidey, 'What Links these Six?', Time, 15 April 1991, p. 37.
9. See Alvin S. Felzenberg, "There you go again": Liberal Historians and the New York Times Deny Ronald Reagan his Due', Policy Review: the Journal of American Citizenship, No. 82, March/April 1997, and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute poll conducted by Dr. Gary L. Gregg and reported on the PRNewswire, 13 October 1997, as 'New Poll Rethinks Reagan, Clinton, and the Place of Other American Presidents in History'.
10. 'The Presidents: History's Judgment', Time, 13 April 1998, p. 48.
11. Hugo Young, 'Thatcher: the First Verdict of History'; The Guardian, 20 June 1991, pp. 21-2.
12. 'Lean Democracy', Demos Collection 3, cited at the Demos web page, http:// www.demos.co.uk
13. Norman Hillmer and J. L. Granatstein, 'Historians Rank the Best and Worst Canadian Prime Ministers', Maclean's, 21 April 1997, pp. 34-9.
14. Norman Abjorensen, 'Rating Edmund Barton to John Howard', The Canberra Times, 21 December 1997, p. 20.
15. Reprinted in Kenneth Janda, Jeffrey M. Berry and Jerry Goldman, The Challenge of Democracy: Government in America 2nd ed., (Boston, 1989), p. 422.
16. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 'Rating the Presidents: Washington to Clinton', Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 112 (1997), pp. 179-90.
17. All statistics taken from J. O. Wilson, New Zealand Parliamentary Record 1840-1984 (Wellington, 1985).
18. Some further replies were received subsequent to the cut-off date but their data have not been included in this research note.
19. Twentieth century Prime Ministers are shaded. In this and subsequent Tables, Richard Seddon - whose career spanned the divide between two centuries - is counted as a nineteenth century Prime Minister. Also note that to avoid confusion all Prime Ministers are referred to without reference to knighthoods or other titles.
20. Based on Figure 11.5: Presidential Greatness, in Janda, Berry and Goldman, The Challenge of Democracy.
21. Equal first with Seddon for Dr. Bassett. Note that all members of this group were from the Labour Party. This includes Mike Moore who, although not prepared to take part in the survey, noted in his letter: 'In my view, Peter Fraser was the most outstanding Prime Minister New Zealand has ever had'.
22. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 'Rating the Presidents: Washington to Clinton', p. 188.