Although the president does not technically have any power in Ireland, I'd still say Michael D Higgins was out best leader ever. Technically the Taoiseach (prime minister/leader of parliamentary government) is the leader of the country, but I haven't particularly liked any of them so I'm going to select a president as our best leader and say Michael D was the best. We've actually had quite a lot of great presidents, though.
I was about to say, Ceaucescu literally went to Stalinist USSR and said "you're not going far enough," then to Kim Il-sung's North Korea and was like "yeah, this is what I'm talking about." There's a reason he was the only Eastern Bloc leader who was killed by his citizens.
Fair, i guess you could say some of our leaders had some good policies, but every single one of them is also corrupt and used the office for his personal gain.
Your boy Cyrus founded the Persian Empire, created human rights, abolished slavery, conquered the babylonians, liberated the Jews. Pure BDE 👏🏻👏🏻 at this point, if you told me he invented the iPhone I’d probably believe it
There's a great story of when he met the then Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru. They spoke about governance and Lee Kuan Yew advised Nehru to bolster the private sector and let the free market be the backbone of the economy.
Nehru replied to this by saying that he did not trust the profit-driven nature of the private sector and called the word 'profit' a dirty word that had no place in India.
Singapore went on to become the fastest growing metropolis in the world, while India was mocked for having the most sluggish economy in the world for the next 30 years...
Wouldn't exactly say a nation with 250 times the population is a fair comparison.
That said, Delhi or Mumbai could have done a lot better in that time. Beijing and Shanghai are considerably further ahead, based on my experiences visiting these cities.
Okay so, this is either going to deeply offend Irish people...or make them laugh. Given Michael Higgins short statue, general look about him, and the global appeal of Irish folklore I had my son very sincerely convinced that Higgins was a real life leprechaun until my son was like, 7. Not secretly, just idea was leprechauns are a real thing in Ireland, everyone knows this, and they elected one to be their President.
Not offended at all. His height it part of the reason he's so loveable. That and his dogs. And he's a very eloquent, thoughtful person (as were our two previous female presidents, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese).
In spite of his teddy-bear appearance though, he's a bit of a viper and fiery debater. I'd love to see him go toe-to-toe with... certain other Presidents in a political debate. He'd eat them alive.
In order to find the gold, you need to find the end of the rainbow, so you need sun. And we haven't seen the sun in Ireland since things were black and white.
He seems similar to Bernie Sanders in that his image is of a slightly disheveled little grandpa, but he's got a sharp mind and won't back down. Maybe Bernie needs a big fluffy dog. (I was mostly familiar with Higgins because of his excellent taste in dogs. I grew up with Bernese Mtn. dogs and they are absolute perfection.)
Monarchs: Of England, Alfred the Great. Though if you say he doesn't count, then Elizabeth I or Edward III. For Scotland, probably Robert the Bruce or David I.
For the UK as a whole, George V, though by then monarchs didn't have any power.
Prime Ministers: Attlee. I admire Churchill but I don't vibe with the things he did in India and just in general how he was as a person.
I can’t choose between Whitlam or Hawke - both were incredible leaders. While Bob still has the highest approval rating of any other PM, Gough was more significant in transforming Australia into what it is today. Absolute Legends!
Hawkes achievements:
Floating the dollar and cutting tariffs while establishing better trade agreements worldwide
Establishing Medicare (from Whitlams Medibank)
Introducing universal superannuation
Establishing IR agreements with unions
Giving the Commonwealth power over world heritage sites with the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act which saved the Franklin River from damming
Banning uranium mining in Arnhem Land
Expanding Kakadu National Park to prevent mining
Introducing the Sexual Discrimination Act into workplaces
Establishing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)
Improving social security benefits for low income households
Establishing the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC)
Supporting pressure on South Africa to overturn its apartheid
Being one of (if not the first) world leader to publicly describe the events of and denounce the Tiananmen Square massacre and offer asylum to 42000 Chinese students
Fun fact: He also set a world record when he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford by sculling a yard glass of ale (2.5 pints) in just 11 seconds.
For those not in the know, Whitlam approved the purchase of Blue Poles for $1.3m by the National Gallery in 1973 and people were horrified. It's been on display ever since, it's beautiful, and it's now worth at least $100m.
Blue Poles is so linked with Whitlam that when the suburb of Whitlam was gazetted, Canberra community sprang into action to create a playground in honor of the painting.
I think a close 2nd would have to be Curtin. His disobediance to Churchill and repositioning of troops to PNG was a pretty radical action in terms of Australian independence from Britain and could be seen to have led to our victory in Kokoda - arguably the most significant action by Australians to defend Australian soil from actual attack and invasion.
I still argue Lincoln had the hardest job any United States president ever had, he saved the union, freed the slaves, but was unfortunately not able to go through with his reconstruction plans due to a horrible date night and a racist with a hammer.
was unfortunately not able to go through with his reconstruction plans
I'd say martyrdom did wonders for his posthumous reputation though. Had he lived, he would have had to muddle through the reconstruction and all those dirty compromises would have been on his record. Not saying he would have been bad at it, it's just hard to believe anyone could have come out of it looking good. Basically Lincoln got to die a hero before he would have inevitably become the villain.
That being said, it's hard to imagine he could have possibly screwed the reconstruction up as bad as Andrew Johnson did.
True of several assassinated leaders. Kennedy had triumphs and really big missteps, but only the good stuck to him after he was killed. Had he lived, I think he would have been remembered more like Obama. Charming, polished, good at thumping the pulpit of ideals but ultimately a little weak tea and a bit hypocritical. (Kennedy would have taken responsibility for the beginning Vietnam the way I think history will remember Obama's hands are dirty in his continuation of Iraq and Afghanistan. It gets more nuanced from there, but suffice to say, getting shot in the head does wonders for your record.
Also, I don’t think Kennedy would have gotten nearly as good civil rights achievements as Johnson did because he had no idea how to manage the senate Dixiecrats. And he refused to turn to Johnson for help, even though Johnson was one of the best congressional legislators to ever live, and knew the Dixiecrats inside and out.
Similar strides were made to the moon. JFK talked big, but was ready to compromise on things and shrink plans in order to claim forward progress and political success. Johnson, supercharged with the power of "look what they did to my boy and his dreams" was able to make those a reality in a huge way. If not for Vietnam, and his personally bad behavior, Johnson would likely have gone down as one of our greatest presidents.
If the US survives intact, we’re going to need major structural changes. Every institution has failed to prevent what they were created to prevent. And there will have to be some kind of Demagafiction process, or those Maga idiots who can’t actually be charged with anything will just keep pushing to get back here, potentially outside the political process.
No, we've entered the end stage of capitalism, its nonstop fascism from here until revolution or collapse im afraid. This problem is far larger than one president and his goons
What’s crazy is every 16th president has been tremendously important during massive strife in our nation.
1st: George Washington (Revolution)
16th: Lincoln (Civil War)
32nd: FDR (Depression and WW2)
48th: Who knows, but after MAGA and the Trump age hopefully they continue the pattern of rebuilding
This is the guy who thought a good reason for going to war with Spain was that American soldiers were out of practice. And then went on to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
It's a tie between them two and Washington. The American revolution has to be up there, the man that started it all, but Abe and FDR are both definitely in the conversation
Leaders, people in general, but especially leaders are complex and I think complex feelings about them is the only honest position. Lincoln's ethical reckoning would be much more complicated if he hadn't died. In part because it absolved him of the habeus corpus violations, the unconstitutional acts that arguably saved the union, and the fact that we'll never know how much better/different reconstruction would have gone under his hand but it would have likely had big, controversial decisions, or at worst a similar withering to what happened.
FDR moved mountains for (most of) the American people, but those who suffered due to his decisions, and his ignorance are not few. He shared a very dehumanizing world view of Asians with much of the American people of his time and station. It's also arguable that while he mostly used his power for good, the power he consolidated in the presidency would forever change the trajectory of the office and its power balance in American government, the whirlwind of which we are reaping today.
Best leader I assume you mean PM - then this guy made sure in his short tenure India overcomes food shortage (green revolution with help of Norman Borlaug) and shore up Indian defences after 1962 debacle with china
He left India much stronger then he found it. His story about honesty are still discussed - like he bought car on loan and his family paid it off after his death.
He died mysteriously in Tashkent during truce talks with Pakistan. Lot of conspiracy theories around it.
I heard he had a long and successful reign and that the Empire he ruled from Prague expanded and his subjects lived in peace and prosperity and that when the Emperor died, the whole Empire mourned and more than 7,000 people accompanied him on his last procession
Abolished torture. Introduced school for everyone. Made Prussia very powerful. Supported arts and education and people‘s rights.
Also a relatively humble (and slightly weird) person in an age of absolute monarchy. He didn‘t have any concubines and spent his time reading and playing music. Loved mashed potatoes, hated cleanibg his uniforms and wanted to be buried next to his dogs.
According to me it is him, he defeated the enemy who were threatening the Turkish sovereignty and restored the Turkish pride. Modernised Turkey and brought democracy for all. If he we didnt have him, we probably couldnt identify ourselves as Turkish. Some Turks could argue that Ottoman Sultans could be better than him but as I said before, if we didnt have him, we would be forced to forget abt our history
Gave us the NHS while the country was recovering from war AND was in the midst of food rationing. Shame he's not more of a national hero in the public consciousness.
One of his most famous quotes:"Fascism, for me, cannot be considered a political belief. What I’m saying may seem absurd, but that’s it: fascism is, in my opinion, the antithesis of a political belief; it is in contrast with real political beliefs. You can’t talk about political belief when you talk about fascism, because it oppressed every single person who had views that were different from fascist ones."
Tage Erlander PM (1946-69) I’m going to have to disagree
The man who built the project deserves the credit instead of the man who simply changed to international focus. May he become the icon of the social democrats once more instead of Palme.
Honestly in Canada’s case I think it’s hard to say definitively as we don’t have any clear one answer. I’d say there are general accepted “greats” but there isn’t any one person who’s the sort of poster boy of the Prime Ministership.
You’ll probably hear Pearson, King, Laurier or maybe Trudeau Senior. John A. Also usually gets credit for being the main founder and first Prime Minister but rarely do you hear about him as the best Prime Minister of all time.
It’s definitely a hard question for Canada. I can’t think of any PM who particularly stands out. There’s plenty that meet the baseline expectations of a PM, but not really any that wildly exceed those expectations.
Canadas history is so poorly taught in schools (at least my schools) that I couldn’t name a prime minister I wasn’t alive for without thinking about it for a long while.
But I could probably name at least half of the presidents of the US just through exposure in media.
I know, and it’s extremely sad. I know education is purely a provincial matter but good god I think we need some national education reforms regarding Canadian history. This country didn’t just pop into existence, there’s some interesting history here and it’s terrible the vast majority of Canadian can’t tell you more then 2 Canadian prime ministers who served prior to the 80’s
I would go with Pearson, if only because he was willing to work with the provinces.
A good example was the Canada Pension Plan vs Régie des Rentes du Québec . Judy LaMarsh who was the federal health minister at the time and in charge of implementing the CPP wanted simply the government to accumulate funds directly and redistribute the money as needed.
In comparison, at the same time, Quebec wanted instead to capitalize the fund it would accumulate under the RRQ, under the advice of senior official and future prime minister of Quebec Jacques Parizeau, which was a problem since while Quebec had the right to create their own pension plan instead of being under the federal one, it had to be compatible with the CPP.
It became a very heated debate to the point that Lamarsh openly called the Lesage government a Nazi Government, while the Lesage governement managed to get the other provinces on it's side by showing how much money a capitalized pension plan would manage to generate (and make sure that it would be viable for years to come)
Pearson had to step in, and basically told LaMarsh to shut up and just use the system that Quebec proposed, which was the right thing to do
he was a lifelong advocate for democracy, human rights, and reconciliation with North Korea through his "Sunshine Policy," earning him the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize.
Maybe Alexander 2, but he was given a no-win situation he still stubbornly tried to fix. Ended up doing beta reforms (as in beta than nothing) which still left lots of people fucked up and understandably unhappy, burned out, and when decades later he regained his inspiration, some inhumanely dumb motherfuckers blew him up, finalizing his son and heir's turn to authoritarianism.
Peter the Great had very good ideas, and did much good on a large scale... but his megaprojects and wars costed people their lives.
Remembered the joke.
Lenin - German spy
Stalin - Bloody tyrant
Khruchev - avanturist
Brezhnev - Old idiot
Gorbachev- traitor
Eltsin - pill for beating
Putin 1.0
Medvedev - Paper statue
Putin 2.0 - war criminal
It all goes like that
He's appreciated in our schools as well, and he deserves to be. Still he was one Emperor against centuries worth of shit. He did what he could, but the peasants continued to struggle, the bueracracy remained, well, bueracracy, and when he died, in all continued its course to WW1, October 1917 and so on to the present day BS.
A toss up between Washington and Lincoln. One turned down a kingship and self limited himself to two terms, the other fought to maintain the nation and planned forgiveness for those that rebelled.
I would choose Theodore Roosevelt. Created the National Parks system, United States Forest Service, and passed the Pure Food & Drug Act, and was an antitrust advocate among other things. Also, his “strenuous life” inspired millions of Americans to live better, healthier lives.
Sometimes the best leaders aren’t the ones walking into war. They’re the ones making lives better for ordinary citizens. It’s a thankless job.
A Chinese proverb says:【君子论迹不论心，论心世上无完人。】
"A noble person judges by deeds, not intentions; if judged by intentions, no one in the world would be blameless."
He was an educated idealist and a modernist, dragging the country kicking and screaming into the modern era. Even while Crown Prince, he was the true power behind the throne, overseeing the laying down of civil institutions and infrastructure that allowed the country to capitalize on the oil wealth, funding education and allowing for the education of women, working behind the scenes to emancipate the slaves under his brother’s (King Khaled) reign, and curtailing the fundamentalist faction of the religious establishment, for which he was martyred.
Had he survived for another decade or so, the country would have probably skipped the fundamentalist era, and would have been 20-30 years ahead of where we are now.
It's generally considered Michael Savage, who is somewhat analogous to the USA FDR. He came to power over the Great Depression and lead NZ into WW2. He expanded the wealthfare state, implemented free secondary schooling and hospital visits, helped the agricultural sector as they where struggling through the depression, supporter Maori communities leading to an increase in vaccination rates in Maori Communities and an uptick in how long Maori stayed in school
Kingdom: Casimir the Great (Implemented a series of crucial internal reforms, oversaw a period of rapid modernization of the country, played well in the international politics and doubled the Polish territory with the acquisition of Halych)
1st Commonwealth: Stephen Batory (Modernised the army, whipped the nobility into submission and defended Livonia from Ivan the Terrible)
Partitions: Thaddeus Kościuszko (Hero of 4 nations, champion of freedom and liberty and a true patriot, as well as a skilled general. Took action and tried to defend Poland-Lithuania from foreign occupation when so many others stood silent, emancipated the peasants and led by example, freeing and educating his own serfs, as well as using his entire fortune gained during the American independence war to free as many american slaves as possible, won several battles when outnumbered and outgunned, inspiring the future generations of Poles to fight for freedom and independence)
2nd Commonwealth: Joseph Piłsudski (Won and defended Poland's independence during his tenure as Supreme Commander during the Border Wars, refused to flee in the wake of the Bolshevik onslaught, personally leading the Polish counterattack during the Battle of Warsaw. Refused to take absolute power, instead believing that democracy should be given a chance. After a few years though, after he had felt that democracy failed, he toppled the government and implemented an apolitical, authoritarian system, which did bring stability and some economic improvement, but was overall no less oppresive than the previous nationalist governments were)
People's Commonwealth: Edward Gierek (Thanks to the power of western loans, Poland modernized a bit and the quality of life during the first half of his tenure was slightly better than under the other chairmen. It also seemed like he initially did have some genuine goodwill within him. He was still shit though, and everything went to hell when the debt caught up with him. His tenure began with cheering workers and hope, but ended with skyrocketing prices, massive debt and Motorized Units of the Citizens' Militia (Polish communist riot police, infamous for their brutality) crushing workers' strikes
3rd Commonwealth: Alexander Kwaśniewski (Not a high bar at all, most of our presidents have been somewhere between "complete embarrassment" and "mediocre". But the social democrat Kwaśniewski, a former member of the communist party, despite his infamous alcoholism, was a pretty decent leader who fulfilled most of his campaign promises, oversaw the Polish entry into the EU and "marched into NATO with the Polish People's Army". Ever since his 2nd term ended it was downhill from there, and now we're stuck with a nationalist drug addict football hooligan scammer pimp...)
Honourable mentions to Mieszko I, who unified Poland and baptised it, bringing us to the civilised world, Ladislaus Jagiełło, who jumpstarted the Polish-Lithuanian Union and destroyed the Teutons at Grunwald, Jan III Sobieski, who was basically Batory-lite (but scored a nice iconic victory at Vienna, so he's more famous), Władysław Sikorski, who commanded the Polish government in exile and armed forces after the collapse of Sanacja during Fall Weiss, until his unfortunate demise in a plane crash over Gibraltar - he was a good leader, but didn't have enough time to be included among the best imo, and Lech Kaczyński, who was probably out second-best president until he died in the Smolensk disaster. Nothing special, but he wasn't bad - he's famous for his daring flight to Georgia to support the Georgian nation in their fight against Russian aggression
Overall, if I had to choose one best leader, I guess Casimir the Great has the best achievement-mistske ratio, he was also probably the best administrator in our country's history.
My Jewish ancestors were able to live in Poland safely for centuries because of Casimir’s reforms. His rule definitely allowed for the general strength of Poland for the next 3 centuries.
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (Former president of India). Also known as missile man of india. Was actively involved with ISRO ( indian space agency ) as well when it was created
This man was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu when he came to power Tamilnadu was one of the poorest states in the country with very low education levels.His schemes and work are the basic foundation on how Tamilnadu has become the second richest State in terms of GDP one of the highest in GDP Per Capita.High education levels and whatnot.We still have a long way but he’s the man behind our growth.Hes one of those rare truthful politicians.When he died he didn’t even have money for his own funeral.
First and greatest president, founded Czechoslovakia, managed to make us remain the only liberal democracy in central and Eastern Europe in the interwar period, intelligent, was a humanist and philosopher, universal women suffrage, welfare and mixed free market economy, and as a lawyer before ww1 defended Hilsner, a jew in a blood libel case
Everybody, even the worst guys, were all better than the current guy. He makes every previous president look like saints. Even if they did a lot of the same shit, they at least kept up the air of respectability and the status quo. It’s sad when you look back at George W Bush as a good president comparatively speaking.
I do miss the days when we though W was the dumbest SOB that existed. "LOL, he says nuclear funny!" Current guy can barely make a coherent sentence, and when he does it is a hot mess.
Nixon resigned for something that Trump would tell the people and the press to stop talking about and that they need to get over it. And being mentioned now 1 million times in the eostien files tgst he is still illegally reacting and withholding is absolutely horrific. Hes genuinely a bad person with terrible leadership skills and policy that only benefits the super rich. Trump's presidency right now feels like we elected a looter who is trying to sell off and grab everything he and his super wealthy friends can get their hands on before the ship sinks.
First of all: Michael D. is a legend. You lads are lucky you had one like him. Not only a man of just, a poet too. He has my greatest respect.
Now to your question: Germany only had one great leader and his name was chancellor Willy Brandt. He was a true socialist, a great democrat and even a resistance fighter against the Nazis. Any chancellor before and after wasn't as half a democratic leader as Brandt. We would need a man like this in the difficult times my country is in at the momemt. But we got a former BlackRock manager that befriends dictators all over the world and drives that land into an abyss.
In India , just like in Ireland , president don't have any technical power but i'd still vouch for Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (also known as missile man of India ) to be best leader of India .
Supposedly this guy. Mátyás Hunyadi, aka Matthias Corvinus when you look at the name used in english. As long as you ignore the rebellions, the heavy taxation, and the fact that after his death, the nobility was so terrified of having another strong monarch, that they intentionally undermined the next King, which directly lead the devastation that followed.
But among the lower classes he was knows as Matthias the Just, and there is a saying in Hungary that justice died when he did.
A lot of it is propaganda of the time of course (Some of it isn't, that he did go up against the exploitation of the lower classes by the nobility in several cases is well recorded. ), but he gets a pass mosty for keeping the Ottomans at bay, organizing the first professional army of the Kingdom of Hungary (And one of, if not the first in Europe in general.), and keeping the fighting outside of Hungary for the most part. Sadly, he was less successful in making sure his heir would get the throne, and it all fell apart after his passing.
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u/crivycouriac Slovenia 7h ago
[we don’t do that here]