Research design

With this research we want to find out what the attitudes and behaviour of Island councilmembers were after the implementation of the WolBES and more specifically attitudes and behaviour on the articles and measures relating to the introduction of the dualistic system for local government. For this we established four variables and six research questions.

Additionally we shall explain what the considerations were for the kind of design we used to answer those questions. For example: what were the considerations between doing a longitudinal or Cross- sectional study? In the following pages we will review several methods. The different variables are perhaps not all suited for study with the same method. Some were better researched with quantitative methods, while others were better researched with qualitative methods. In the following pages we will detail the choices made for the methods chosen.

5.1.1.

Qualitative: Implementation dualistic measures of the WolBES

The implementation of dualistic system itself is a process that mostly consists of changing formal rules in the form of regulations and ordinances. It can be studied by doing literature research on the law and explanatory memorandum, general publications on dualism and the subsequent policy papers of the Caribbean public entities themselves. However this proved to be difficult as we found that such documents were not always being properly publicized. Nevertheless a list of measures could be derived from multiple sources and a checklist created to establish to what extent dualism was implemented.

Interviews

Initially it was somewhat hard to find the documentation on the implementation of these mandatory measures. Not all documents were readily available on official publication pages of the Caribbean public entities and neither does it seem that all documentation is available in the legislative database in the Netherlands. To this end we also considered performing interviews with stakeholders such as the Island secretaries and (if present) Island council clerks as experts on to what extent measures have been implemented. However by the time this thesis was nearing completion there were enough indicators to assess the situation. For future studies, interviews are recommended.

5.1.2.

Quantitative: Attitudes and behaviour

It would probably have been more interesting to study behaviour by direct observation, however as we lack the budget for such methods and seeing that we also want to study attitudes we are considered using a more cost efficient way by doing a survey. Attitudes are probably best measured by asking respondents to voice them as we cannot measure nor observe them directly. Furthermore we have a population based on three different Islands with different languages.

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To avoid possible coding issues it was considered to use quantitative methods. All these considerations led to the choice of a quantitative survey as being the most suitable in terms of both capabilities and resources available.

Longitudinal

As we want to see if attitudes and practices had changed, a longitudinal study would have been the preferable option. Such a research method entails a series of observations of the same research subject(s) spanning a certain amount of time. It is however an intensive way of studying a subject that can take years of study and as such can show developments in its research subjects and therefore potentially able to find effects in a contiguous timeframe that might be indicative of possible causal relations. In that sense a longitudinal design provides a good method for studying a specific event such as the implementation of the WolBES and the dualistic system. For a master thesis, this would be achievable and feasible if there was already a foundation.

And it is perhaps therefore not a surprise that when studying dualism in the Netherlands, a longitudinal design was used to review the developments over time. In the context of the BES islands we unfortunately cannot use longitudinal methods. While indeed this approach has been used in studies in the Netherlands, there have been few studies on the BES Islands that can serve as a proper pre-test. Given that the BES islands were formally situated in a different nation than the Netherlands with its own governmental structure and culture, it can be questioned if it is wise to equate Dutch behaviour and attitudes found before the implementation of dualism in the Netherlands to behaviour and attitudes on the BES islands before implementation of the WolBES and a dualistic system.

What can also be done is lay the foundation to repeat this research and perhaps in the future observe developments over time. It is also possible to some extent to compare the intended outcome of the WolBES with the actual outcome found in practice after the implementation of the WolBES by asking if the respondents view the administrative practice as having changed. This approach is perhaps less reliable, but given the lack of a possibility of a longitudinal design, it is feasible and workable. So given the unique situation on the BES islands and differences found in the initial position before the implementation of dualism and thus the lack of a proper pre-test on the BES islands, it is almost inevitable to perform a cross sectional study.

Cross-sectional

A cross sectional study is a kind of study one performs at a specific time without interfering with the research population. It is often used to measure a single or several aspects of different populations at a singular moment in time and can be used to compare a variable among different groups at the same time. Given that we are looking into a development on three separate Islands, this seems suitable. The downside of a cross sectional study is that it does not readily show development over time within the dataset, while we are in this research interested in how something developed after an intervention. We can however perform some measure of analysis by assessing if a current situation conforms to what was intended in the policy theory. While we can of course ask respondents if they view a situation as having changed, a recollection of a change in attitude or practice is less desirable than being able to view a change over time.

This makes it difficult to assess causal relations. One of the characteristics of a causal relation is that it is an effect which happens contiguous in a timeframe. A cross sectional study, which is by definition a snapshot of any given moment without gathering comparable data on the population about what happens before or after the study does not take such a timeframe in account and as such does not establish a contiguous event.

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