Ranking Prime Ministers: Canada in a Commonwealth Context

Azzi, Stephen; Hillmer, Norman

doi:10.1080/03086534.2020.1765531

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…As such, longevity provides an opportunity for leadership performance, but it is not a guarantee for leaders to become more powerful the longer they last (Helms 2016). It is, therefore, not necessarily a sufficient or indeed even a necessary condition for success (Rhodes and Hart 2014, 13; O’Neill et al, 2021, 6; ’t Hart and Schelfhout 2016; Azzi and Hillmer 2021). Still, survival and performance are inextricably linked (see Table 1), and Alexiadou and O’Malley (2022) find a strong correlation between time in office and control over the party organization.…”

Section: Careers Party Leaders and Leadership Survivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accruing career capital: How party leaders with more political experience survive longer

Claessen

2023

Party Politics

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As some of the most experienced political actors, party leaders usually have extensive careers spanning multiple decades, competencies, and institutions. The literature on party leaders, however, has not yet incorporated the wealth of information that these careers have. Therefore, this article introduces career capital as a new continuous measure of political experience and hypothesizes that more career capital leads to longer tenure. In contrast to findings from previous studies, I show that career capital does contribute to party leaders’ survival in office in several analyses of party leader duration in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland in the postwar period (1945–2023). In addition, because career capital is accumulated in three separate institutions, I examine the differences between these descriptively and show in the analysis that especially previous experience in legislative office is conducive for party leaders to remain longer in office. Lastly, the results indicate that the relationship between career capital and party leader duration is non-linear and subject to the effect of attrition, signifying that political experience acquired shortly before entering party leader office is more important for political survival.

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Section: Careers Party Leaders and Leadership Survivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accruing career capital: How party leaders with more political experience survive longer

Claessen

2023

Party Politics

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“…With its innovation attracting international interest and praise, 1 the 2013 publication of the four sets of rankings spurred more activity. In each country there have been further academic prime-ministerial rankings: in Australia in 2020, in Britain in 2016 (Cowburn 2016), in Canada in 2016 (Azzi and Hillmer 2021), and in New Zealand in 2018 (Smith 2019). In addition, there has been a foray into the field outside the Anglo sphere with an academic initiated ranking of Dutch prime ministers in 2013 ('t Hart and Schelfhout 2016).…”

Section: Leadership Rankings Outside the United Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, there had been criticism that no 'ethics or integrity element' had been included (Strangio 2013, 278). The choice of performance benchmarks for the 2020 survey was also influenced by those used in other jurisdictions, namely they were adapted from rankings polls conducted in the Netherlands in 2013 and Canada in 2016 ('t Hart and Schelfhout 2016;Azzi and Hillmer 2021). The nine areas of performance were: effectively managing cabinet; maintaining support of party/coalition; demonstrating personal integrity; leaving a significant policy legacy; relationship with the electorate; communication effectiveness; nurturing national unity; defending and promoting Australian interests abroad; being able to manage turbulent times.…”

Section: The 2020 Monash University Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

Prime-ministerial leadership rankings: the Australian experience

Strangio

2022

Australian Journal of Political Science

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Leadership ranking exercises, which have a storied history in the United States, have recently gained a foothold in Westminster democracies. In 2020, the author conducted a major survey of Australian political scientists and historians to gauge their opinion of the leadership performance of the nation's past prime ministers. Read in tandem with the results of earlier surveys, particularly that conducted out of Monash University in 2010, the 2020 rankings indicate that expert opinion about who have been Australia's most successful prime ministers is largely settled. The 2020 results also suggest that the experts believe that the policy legacy of a leader is a more important indicator of primeministerial success than is the longevity of office.

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Ranking Prime Ministers: Canada in a Commonwealth Context

Cited by 2 publications

References 17 publications

Accruing career capital: How party leaders with more political experience survive longer

Accruing career capital: How party leaders with more political experience survive longer

Prime-ministerial leadership rankings: the Australian experience

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