2 - Research Framework

Summary

METHODOLOGY AND SELECTION OF CASE STUDIES

This study will use a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods, but with a clear preference towards qualitative research findings. Since the impact of institutional reforms can hardly be expressed in figures and numbers, an in-depth analysis provides more insight and leads to more realistic results. Therefore, the primary research method will be the analysis of significant scholarly literature on democratization as well as relevant literature on Philippine, Thai, and Indonesian politics. If available, statistical material and organization data from the countries under research were also included as well as (legal) official documents such as constitutions, laws, and regulations.

In order to raise the quality of the evaluation, I conducted qualitative interviews with local experts during various field trips to Manila, Bangkok, and Jakarta and other cities in the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Interviews with Southeast Asian government officials, parliamentarians, and politicians provided additional first-hand experiences and gave a local voice to the assessments in this study. To avoid a partisan bias, the selection of the interviewed politicians and government officials included the different political camps in the respective countries and members of the government as well as opposition forces.

To obtain further background information, I also conducted a variety of interviews with local journalists, NGO activists, political analysts and scholars. The purpose of these interviews was to cross-check assumptions and to get additional information. Often a personal interview with an expert gives you more country-specific insights than just the study of his or her publications.

The interviews in Indonesia were supported by the German development cooperation agency GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit), for which I produced an evaluation study of their portfolio in good governance and decentralization in 2008. Most interviews were conducted in Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia) with a few in English. Most interviews in the Philippines were facilitated by the local branches of the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation and Friedrich-Ebert- Foundation, while in Thailand the local branches of the same organizations helped to organize the interviews. The interviews did not follow a strict questionnaire, since the questions were adapted to the function of the interviewee. The statements which are quoted in this study have not been tape-recorded, but written afterwards from notes during the interviews. Therefore, they should not be taken as official statements, but rather as informal information given to the author.