Data Collection: Policy Documents and Elite Interviews

For the in-depth analysis of this case study, a variety of policy documents and elite interviews has been conducted. Figure 4 shows the data corresponding to the factor of analysis to determine normative policy coherence.

The first round of the data collection consisted of choosing relevant policy documents. A non-exhaustive list of documents include the European Consensus on Development, the EU Aid for Trade Strategy, the Treaty on the European Union, the EU Agenda for Change, the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Vietnam, the EU Blue Book on Development Cooperation Activities in Vietnam published from 2007 to 2014, the Commission’s Annual Reports on Development Assistance from 2007, the Multiannual Indicative Program for Vietnam 2014-2020, and relevant documents regarding trade relations, such as publications from the EU institutions regarding the EU-VN free trade negotiations.

A more detailed list can be found in appendix 1. These documents correspond to all three factors of analysis: political commitment, policy networks and regional interests.

The European Union has set nine instruments that can be used for funding external assistance in third countries⁵. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights

5 The instruments are: European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP); Partnership Instrument (PI), Instrument for Nuclear Safety and Cooperation (INSC), Instrument for Development Cooperation (DCI), European Development Fund (EDF), Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance 2 (IPA), European Neighborhood Instrument (ENI), and Instrument for Greenland (IfG). For details see https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/funding/funding-instruments-programming/funding-instruments_en

57 (EIDHR) and the Instrument for Development Cooperation (DCI), which is split between geographical and thematic programs, fall under the premises of DG DEVCO and are, consequently used for quantitative data on aid allocation. OECD data on DAC members is used to complement the information regarding overall ODA commitments and disbursements.

The general commitment to development cooperation can be found in the EU treaties and the general agreement between the EU and Vietnam, which is why those documents fall under the scope of political commitment, whereas the detailed disbursement plans and priority sectors are detailed in the multi-annual indicative framework and EU Blue Books fall under the scope of the policy network analysis, because the priorities have the capacity to shape who is part of which network.

The second round of data collection was dedicated to conducting elite interviews with EU officials in Brussels and EU and member state officials in Vietnam. A qualitative approach was used here by targeting specific actors in accordance with the purposive sampling method, which fits the congruence method quite well, as it is an adapted version of process tracing, for which non-probability sampling of elite interviews has been argued to be a suitable combination (Tansey, 2007). In contrast to large scale interviewing rounds or questionnaires, this will ensure the gathering of relevant information that is needed for the study and feeds into answering the given questions. Random sampling is not a suitable tool here because of the qualitative character of the study and the small sample size. However, some flexibility as to the respondents was necessary given their availability/non-availability.

Suitable alternative respondents had to be found in case of non-availability to ensure a sufficient number of respondents. As is the case with elite interviews, information regarding the political system might be biased, which is why treating the provided information carefully and keeping in mind the interviewees’ background and professional position is crucial.

These three stages of data collection, as presented in figure 4, correspond with the three empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter, chapter four, analyzes the political commitment of the EU. Chapter five assesses the role of policy networks in policy implementation and in the third empirical chapter, chapter six, the relationship between the EU and ASEAN is examined. These three aspects influence policy implementation and consequently normative policy coherence.

58 Figure 4: Stages of Data Collection

Source: author’s own creation

Elite interviews in relation to data collection entail practical advantages and disadvantages for a researcher. In this research in particular, representatives from the political elite were targeted.

On the one hand, bureaucrats based at the EU institutions in Brussels and on the other hand, embassy staff from European embassies in Vietnam were interviewed. In relation to that, it needs to be said that access to the political elite can sometimes proof to be complicated. Once an appointment is scheduled, the conditions are suitable for a professional research interview because most staff members have their own offices. In such a setting, the researcher is however exposed to the hierarchical structures within a given institution as well as potential hierarchical imbalances between the researcher and the respondent. This might relate to either age, gender or profession and needs to be kept in mind when conducting interviews in general.

Language is another issue, which can arise when applying interviews as a method for data collection. In this case, the two sites are Belgium, Brussels in particular as it hosts the European institutions that are of interest for this study, and Vietnam, where Hanoi represents the political center and Ho Chi Minh City the business center. For interviews with the European representatives no language barriers are expected as English or German will be the common

Normative policy coherence

Political commitment

Policy networks Inter-regional

relations

Primary Data:

-Treaties, EU-VN agreements -Interviews

Primary Data:

-Interviews

-Project descriptions Primary Data:

-Regional & global strategy -Interviews

59 language. However, interviews with the political elite from Vietnam might require an interpreter due to the lack of a common language.

A third issue that needs to be mentioned in relation to elite interviews is the particular role that political representatives play. Each interview is based on the expectations that the two parties involved have towards each other. While the researcher hopes to find an honest response, the respondents might either try to give a response that they think is what the researcher wants to hear or give a response according to the official political discourse. The second point, in particular, is a concern when conducting elite interviews as the respondents might try to be politically correct rather than stating the facts. This is not to say that they will not tell the truth;

instead, the meaning of their answers might be obscured and, therefore, more difficult to interpret.

Finally, a distinction is made here between experts and elites even though these two concepts are not mutually exclusive. The distinction might become clearer by specifying the terms to technical experts and political elite. A worker in a garment factory might be an expert on the decision-making processes within this factory but does not belong to the political elite. This expert might be consulted by the elite as part of their policy evaluation or formulation but is not formally part of the elite. The political elite within a country is largely concerned with broader processes rather than in-depth knowledge of particular cases. When it comes to national delegations to a third country, the situation is slightly different. Even though within the delegation there is a certain hierarchy, the status as a representative of a country per se tends to bring economic and social superiority over the local population. This is also the case for local staff employed by the embassies. While this might be less the case when posted in other European countries, in Vietnam this distinction becomes quite visible. That is to say, a project manager, who is the expert on a given project, would not be considered as political elite within a national context, but as an employee of an embassy, this project manager enters the political elite by being employed by the foreign government.

The interviews were conducted in a single round of data collection. Semi-structured questionnaires provided a guideline for the interviews. On the one hand, this semi-structured approach made the interviews comparable and led the interviewee towards the topics of interest. Carefully selected questions addressed the research questions directly and indirectly, however if relevant related topics come up, these will not be excluded from the interview. The main focus remains on the prepared set of open-ended questions, nevertheless restricting the

60 interview to those questions alone might leave an important detail unexplored. The interview questions are divided into three parts. The first set of questions covers background information on the respondent’s position, experience and budget. The second set addresses EU-ASEAN relations and the third set, the main part of the interview, covers the type of relationship with colleagues, meeting patterns and the relevancy of norms in day-to-day work. Audio recordings were used during the interviews given the respondent’s consent, which I transcribed for the analysis. In interviews, for which I have not received consent for recording, note taking had to be sufficient.

During the analysis of the interviews, certain aspects of information distortion need to be kept in mind. First, past events are reconstructed in the memory and, therefore, an interviewee’s impression of an event will most likely not comprise the full picture. Second, a respondent might try to make him- or herself or his/her organization look better and present the reality in a euphemistic light. Third, the interviewee might not be aware of certain patterns or behavior and, therefore, his answer will not represent actual happenings. Fourth, this research addresses norms, which are widely accepted in Europe but often not in other cultures. Thus, the understanding and interpretation of these norms can differ from the European understanding, or it is seen as a sensitive topic. In both cases, the responses do not exactly reflect the initial aim of a question.

The data collection phase was based on the aim of increasing content and internal validity of this study. Content validity comprises the level to which a measure represents all facets of a concept and internal validity relates to the consistency of a respondent’s answers across similar topics. Therefore, the interview questions were designed and structured following the causal assumptions outlined below. First, in the trade sector most general agreements are negotiated on the international level, while development agreements are held in bilateral structures. The more actors are involved and the more influential these actors are, the less power the EU has to negotiate the inclusion of norms. This assumption relates to the research question on normative power, i.e. whether the EU is a normative power in development and/or in trade, which will be the primary topic in chapter four and chapter six. Figure 5 visualizes the path from power to norm representation to normative policy coherence.

61 Figure 5: From Power to NPCD

Source: author’s own creation

A second path to normative policy coherence leads via communication. Communication between various stakeholders can create awareness of norms and, as a result, could potentially lead to the implementation of norms, which leads to normative policy coherence. However, due to sectorization between the development and trade arena communication is likely to be lacking. Normative spill over can only take place if existing channels allow for it, i.e. without communication between the various actors in the field, normative statements remain universally represented only on a documentation level. Figure 6 provides a visualization of this relation, which is primarily examined in chapter five by analyzing policy networks.

Figure 6: From Communication to NPCD

Source: author’s own creation

Not only do the two sectors have two sets of norms but, even if they do, the understanding of the same norms varies among the policy arenas. While both sides emphasize their commitment to norms, the interpretation of norms is not the same, which leads to incoherence and diverging norm implementation. Hence, the need for communication and exchange between all relevant actors is even more emphasized. In reverse, the lack of communication hinders normative policy coherence for development. This assumption will be re-assessed in chapter five analyzing various policy communities and their impact on normative policy coherence for development.

In line with this structure, the interview questions posed to each individual were phrased as uniformly as possible to increase comparability between the responses. The set of questions to the Vietnamese officials differs from the questions to the European officials as they have an entirely different background from the EU representatives. All interview questions can be

Level of Power Norm Representation

Normative Policy Coherence

Communication Implementation

Normative

Policy

Coherence

62 found in appendix 2.

In total, 32 interviews were conducted. In appendix 3, a classification of the respondents along profession and European/national representation can be found. Due to confidentiality, any other respondent information cannot be provided here. All interviews were carefully transcribed by the author using the software Atlas.ti, except in those cases when respondents did not give their approval for audio recording. In those cases, notes taken during the interview were used for analysis. Transcripts exist for 26 out of 32 interviews and the remaining six interviews are notes-only. One audio file was deleted after transcription as requested by the respondent.

The entire data set, therefore, comprises 31 policy documents, 26 interview transcripts and 6 interview notes⁶. These interviews represent European institutions in the widest sense and one Vietnamese NGO. It was not possible to interview the Luxembourgish development representative, because the office was closed due to the decision to focus development efforts on Laos, direct neighbor to Vietnam.

As mentioned above, access to the political elite can sometimes be complicated. This has also been the case with the Vietnamese government. Despite the researcher’s affiliation to the Institute for Social Development Studies in Hanoi during the time of fieldwork, it was not possible to get access to a representative from the Vietnamese government. Consequently, this study exclusively focuses on the European side of the story. As a result, all interviews were conducted in English or German without the need of a translator.