Mapping Sustainability across the World: Signs, Challenges and Opportunities for Democratic Countries
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The text is well written. A bit long. I think it could be compressed.
Correlation tests are well described and represented. The findings are interesting and, I think, reflect reality.
However, I am a little concerned that the data are collected between 2015-2021, and the authors believe that "The current social and political context is characterized by a series of crises generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, economic imbalances and regional conflicts. In this context, sustainable development is affected by economic dynamics and 'democratic recession'.
I think a comparison between 2015 and the time of onset of the pandemic and from the time of onset of the pandemic to 2022 would be good. This would give us a much better understanding of how damaging the economic, health and security crises are to sustainable development. The years prior to the three crises mentioned may influence the final results, making the index not reflect reality (based on the three crises).
The security crisis caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been brought up, but the data presented has nothing to do with it. No negative influence of this crisis can be shown (from the data presented). It can be logically deduced, but without accurate data, which unfortunately is lacking, no relevant analysis can be made.
The authors say: ”In non-democratic countries, economic growth is seen as an important catalyst for achieving social or economic sustainability. Western democratic countries are characterized by a strong linear association between the quality of the political regime and strong institutions, fair justice and peace”.
For example, Przeworski – in “Modernization: theories and facts”, în World Politics 49.2 (1997) - starts from the idea that "democracies emerge independently of the level of development, but die in poorer countries and survive in richer countries" .
However, in poor countries democracies can only arise in exceptional cases, but they do not survive. Take poor countries in Africa, for example. Any trace of democracy has completely disappeared thanks to the poverty found in the region. Another situation involving political destabilisation in a poorer democratic state can arise when forced economic development is attempted in a short period of time. Any forcing aimed at economic growth in a short period of time can lead to the democratic system devolving into authoritarianism or totalitarianism. In very poor countries, democracy is unlikely to emerge, and if forced economic growth is attempted in a very short period, the regime tends to become authoritarian or totalitarian.
Author Response
Thank you for the review!
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The topic of the paper is relevant and very interesting. Authors used a wide range of international literature sources and cited them correctly. Most part of them are from the last 10 years. Their paper introduced the importance of democracy in achieving the UN 2030 Agenda for SD. They argued that the quality of the political regime could explain and predict the evolution of SDGs in different geographical regions from the economic, social and environmental pillars. In this paper they used secondary data which measure the SDGs in terms of SD and the quality of national democracy through DI for mapping the evolution of SD. They used proper methods and presented results using clear figures and tables. As a conclusion they underlined the fact that democracy could be seen as an important predictor and catalyst for the further sustainable development processes. I appreciate their findings and results.
Author Response
Thank you very much for the review!
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The aim of the paper is to stress the importance of democracy in achieving the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Authors also analyse the economic, social and environmental pillars. But in contrast with other studies dealing with similar issues, they have also added to the research area political freedom, political regime, democracy and they analyze their impact on sustainable development.
The research area is very actual. The whole article is interestingly processed. I highly appreciate the structure of the article. It is clear, the individual parts follow each other. The methodology is clearly stated. The set methods take into account the researched issues. For the research in this specified area, the distribution of the researched factors was correct. The list of resources is appropriate to the research area.
Author Response
Thank you for the review!
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
