Quality of Government, Democracy, and Well-Being as Determinants in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Recent reports have indicated a slowdown in global progress towards compliance with the 2030 Agenda and a setback in some objectives. This has prompted the development of research to identify the factors contributing to some countries moving faster than others in achieving the goals. Until now, the literature has emphasized the role of economic and institutional factors in achieving the 2030 Agenda, making it necessary to investigate the effects that other political or social factors may generate. To contribute to this purpose, this article aims to identify the effect of the quality of government, democracy, and well-being on aggregate compliance with the 2030 Agenda. Through a quantitative analysis that uses the level of achievement of the 2030 Agenda as a dependent variable and six independent variables related to the quality of government, democracy status, and well-being, we found that the effectiveness of government, the welfare regime, subjective well-being, and democracy status positively influence the achievement of sustainable development objectives. These findings have practical implications, as they suggest that countries with solid and effective government institutions, social safety networks, high subjective well-being, and healthy democracy have greater potential for meeting the goals of the 2030 Agenda, emphasizing the urgency of our collective efforts.