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Ronald Reagan
Historical figureUnited States1911-2004

Ronald Reagan

40th President of the United States (1981-1989) · 33rd Governor of California

Republican president who lowered income tax rates, built up the military, loosened regulation and later signed an arms treaty with the Soviet Union.

Compare yourself See the 12 scores
Profile on 12 axesAll 12 documented
ECONOMYSTATESOCIETYWORLDOwnershipMarketsWelfareAuthoritySecurityStructureMoralityReligionTechnologyCultureTradeForeign
Where they stood

Ronald Reagan, axis by axis

  1. 01Ownership+50
    PublicPrivate
  2. 02Markets+60
    PlannedFree
  3. 03Welfare+50
    SharedSelf-reliant

    He cut taxes and many domestic programs, but Social Security and Medicare were mostly left as they were.

  4. 04Authority-20
    DemocraticStrong leader

    On the whole he ruled inside constitutional limits, with the Iran-Contra affair as the main mark against that.

  5. 05Security+50
    LibertyOrder
  6. 06Structure-40
    LocalCentral
  7. 07Morality+55
    ProgressiveTraditional
  8. 08Religion+45
    SecularReligious
  9. 09Technology-35
    EmbraceCaution

    This score is inferred from his backing for the Strategic Defense Initiative and high-tech weapons. He took no clear stand on biotechnology.

  10. 10Culture-5
    MulticulturalNational identity

    He signed the 1986 immigration law, which gave legal status to many undocumented people and also added penalties for employers. He spoke warmly of immigrants, so the score sits near the middle.

  11. 11Trade-35
    GlobalProtected

    In principle he liked free trade and worked toward a US-Canada pact, but he accepted limits on some imports, Japanese cars among them.

  12. 12Foreign policy+60
    CooperationStrength

Who was Ronald Reagan?

Ronald Reagan was born in 1911 and worked as a film actor before leading the Screen Actors Guild. He began as a Democrat and became a Republican. His televised speech for Barry Goldwater in 1964 made him a star of the conservative movement. California voters elected him governor, and he served two terms. In 1980 he won the White House, and in 1984 he was re-elected by a huge margin. His platform called for lower taxes, smaller domestic budgets, fewer rules for business, a bigger military and a tough line on Soviet communism. In his second term he reached arms control deals with Mikhail Gorbachev. He died in 2004.

Political views

  • Lowered income taxes several times, bringing the top rate down from 70 percent to 28 percent over his years in office.Source: millercenter.org
  • Said he would slow the growth of federal regulation, but historians at the Miller Center judge his actual record on deregulation to be uneven.Source: millercenter.org
  • Took on the 1981 air traffic controllers' union, which had begun a strike that was against the law.Source: millercenter.org
  • Held conservative social views, opposing abortion rights and supporting prayer in public schools.Source: millercenter.org
  • Oversaw a major rise in defence spending and launched the Strategic Defense Initiative, a planned missile shield.Source: millercenter.org
  • Gave support to anticommunist fighters around the world under what became the Reagan Doctrine and ordered the invasion of Grenada in 1983.Source: millercenter.org
  • Signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987 with Mikhail Gorbachev.Source: millercenter.org

Legacy

Supporters say Reagan ended the stagflation of the 1970s, lifted the national mood and helped bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War. Conservatives in America still treat him as their main reference point. Critics reply that tax cuts combined with higher military spending produced big deficits, that inequality grew and that his administration was slow to respond to AIDS. The Iran-Contra affair, in which arms went to Iran and the money was sent on to rebels in Nicaragua, drew criticism from both parties. Historians continue to argue over how much credit belongs to his policies and how much to changes inside the Soviet Union.

In their own words

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
First Inaugural Address, 1981

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Ronald Reagan: questions

Was Ronald Reagan a Democrat or a Republican?

Both, at different times. He was a Democrat in his early adult life and switched to the Republican Party in the early 1960s. He then served as a Republican governor and president.

What is Reaganomics?

It is the name for his economic program. It combined lower income tax rates, cuts in some domestic spending, less regulation and a stronger military. Supporters say it revived growth. Critics say it raised deficits and widened inequality.

What did Reagan believe about the Soviet Union?

He saw Soviet communism as a serious threat and built up US forces to match it. In his second term he also talked with Gorbachev, which led to the 1987 treaty on intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

Sources