Are Citizens Credentialist or Post-Nationalists? A Fuzzy-Eco Apostle Model Applied to National Identity
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper analyse citizens' different national identity typologies using data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), using the membership function obtained with the fuzzy clustering analysis.
The paper represents a completion of studies in the field by providing new approaches based on fuzzy set theory that are not commonly used in the social sciences. The novelty of the study is based on the extension applied to the classical eco apostle model using the membership function obtained with the fuzzy clustering analysis. Thus, it is observed that citizens are more credentialists than any other category.
The authors made a chronological synthesis of the studies carried out in order to interpret the national identity, in a civic / ethnic context. The description of the applied model, the criteria and the results obtained / presented in this paper underline the fact that the national identity is a combination of ethnic and civic criteria.
I consider very important the study made by the authors, I wish them success in their activity.
Author Response
Thank you very much, we really appreciate your comments.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
I think the main question of the article is interesting and i can see how can we use it in the practice not only in theoretical way. I think this is the most important point of the sciencific article. Can we impelement the researches in the practice or we can work with them in laboratories? So, i think the article is good enough to publish it. It was easy to read and it is following a logical way. The figures and tables were also clear for me.
The only problem is the length of the article. As i saw it is containing a lot of tables and appendix. I think the authors have to reduce the page numbers somehow.
By the way the work is origin and they are using in a new approach of fuzzy logic. Good job!
Author Response
R1: Thank you for your comments!
R2: We have accepted your advice and have summarized the tables in the Appendix into a single table. We have reduced the length of the document.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
In this paper the authors present a study aims to analyse citizens' different national 9 identity typologies using data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) in two waves, 10 2003 and 2013. The study is based on ten countries for which the dimensions of the national identity 11 construct are first examined through multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA). Then, a 12 fuzzy hybrid approach is used to obtain two synthetic indicators for each dimension of national 13 identity, namely ethnic and civic orientations. Then, a Fuzzy Clustering Analysis is used to extend 14 the Classical Apostle Model, obtaining sixteen different national identity categories that expand the 15 four Apostle categories denominated as credentialists, post-nationalists, ethnic-oriented and civic-16 oriented. The study ends by applying the Binary Probit Model to analyse whether some socioeco-17 nomic characteristics can partly explain the four pure national identity categories. However, the following comments must be considered in order to improve the quality of the manuscript.
1.- Due to the topic of this special issue "Fuzzy Logic and its Applications", I would expext to see a Section where the fuzzy logic theory is applied to this case in particular.
2.- I ask the authors about what points can be highlighted with respect to the previous publication?
Indelicato, A.; Martín, J.C. Two Approaches to Analyze Whether Citizens’ National Identity Is Affected by Country, Age, and Political Orientation—A Fuzzy Eco-Apostle Model. Appl. Sci. 2022,12, 3946. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12083946
Author Response
R1: Thank you! Fuzzy Logic has been applied in this document to the study of national identity (Section 5.1). We used Fuzzy to deal with the vague information provided by the ISPP questionnaire. Then we applied TOPSIS to the defuzzified information and created synthetic indicators of national identities. Thus, we applied Fuzzy Cluster Analysis to identify the profiles of ethnic and civic national identity. Hence, we believe that the Fuzzy Logic has been applied to our case study.
R2: In this study, we wanted to include an important econometric section to understand which socio-economic characteristic influences the individual national identity. Econometric models are a very important and valid tool in these cases.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors have clarified the points of my previous review, therefore I recommend that the manuscript be considered for publication.
