Explaining presidential greatness: the roles of peace and prosperity?

Research on presidential greatness has a long history in the study of the American presidency. A prominent aspect of this literature is the study of presidential ratings generated from surveys of both experts and average Americans, A considerable body of research suggests that a relatively small number of factors--such as time in office, intellectual brilliance, and whether a president was assassinated--explain a great deal of the variation in the ratings. However, this list of variables includes no indicators of policy performance. We propose two such measures--one focusing on economic outcomes and one focusing on the outcomes of military conflict--and provide rationales for the hypothesized relationships between these measures of policy performance and presidential ratings. We find evidence of a substantial relationship between economic policy success and presidential ratings. However, there is no evidence of a relationship between foreign policy success and presidential ratings.
The American political landscape has been graced with some great presidents. One remarkable president in American history began making a name for himself long before he took office. This future [...]