Exploring a Relationship between the Dutch Governance Industry and National Soft Power
by Roos van Gent
s1139630
MASTER THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A DEGREE IN
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION International and European Governance
MASTER OF SCIENCE
2016
LEIDEN UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs Schouwburgstraat 2, 2511 VA The Hague
Supervisor Dr. C.F. van den Berg Second Reader Prof. Dr. F. M. van der Meer
ABSTRACT
This research aims to explore a relationship between the soft power of the Netherlands and policy diffusion from the Netherlands to other countries, by means of the governance industry. Policy diffusion, depends on perception. It is argued in literature on institutional isomorphism that a country seeks successfulness in another country, when looking for solutions to domestic policy problems. Perceived successfulness can be characterised as soft power. Soft power is the ability to attract and can thus influence whether a country is selected in a policy diffusion process.
The governance industry is a concept developed for this research, it is comprised of organisations active in the field of public institution and capacity building abroad. Several criteria are developed to determine the governance industry organisations.
This research combines qualitative and quantitative data to operationalise the performance of the governance industry and the developments in the past ten years of the Dutch soft power. The key findings are as follows. The governance industry is active in the field of public governance. Public governance is a strength of the Netherlands, and simultaneously one of its soft power resources, which is reflected in the worldwide popularity of the polder model. Therefore the argument is made that the Dutch soft power can have an effect on the performance of the governance industry. At the same time, this research has demonstrated that in the relationship between policy diffusion and institutional isomorphism, soft power can also play a role.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ii
Table of Contents iii
List of Abbreviations vi
List of Tables vii
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements viii
Chapter 1 - Introduction 1
Chapter 2 - Reviewing the Literature 6
2.1 Policy Diffusion 6
2.2 Soft Power by Joseph S. Nye 10
2.3 Sources of Soft Power 12
2.3.1 Culture 13
2.3.2 Political Values 14
2.3.3 Foreign Policies 15
2.4 Soft Power Behaviour 15
2.5 Results of Soft Power? 16
2.6 Nye’s application to the United States 17
2.7 Critique on Soft Power 19
2.8 Concepts Connected 20
2.9 Chapter Conclusion 21
Chapter 3 - Research design 23
3.1 Introduction 23
3.2 Measuring Dutch Soft Power 23
3.2.1 Elcano Global Presence Index 25
3.2.2 Anholt-GFK Roper Nation Brands Index 27
3.2.3 Monocle’s Soft Power Survey 28
3.2.4 Combining the Surveys 29
3.3 Measuring the Performance of the Governance Industry 30
3.3.2 Interviews 33
3.4 Validity and Reliability 35
3.4.1 Reliability and Validity of the Independent Variable 35 3.4.2 Reliability and Validity of the Dependent Variable 36
3.5 Defining the Governance Industry 37
3.6 Chapter Conclusion 37
Chapter 4 - The Governance Industry 39
4.1 What defines the Governance Industry? 40
4.1.1 The Criteria 41
4.2 The Organisations of the Governance Industry 45
4.2.1 Criterium 1 45 4.2.2 Criterium 2 46 4.2.3 Criterium 3 46 4.2.4 Criterium 4 47 4.2.5 Criterium 5 48 4.2.6 In sum 48
4.3 Inside of the Governance Industry 51
4.3.1 Ways to Improve 53
4.4 Chapter Conclusion 55
Chapter 5 - Data and Analysis 57
5.1 Introduction 57
5.2 Presentation of the Dutch Soft Power 57
5.2.1 In sum 60
5.3 Presentation of the Performance of the Governance Industry 61
5.3.1 Performance - Interviews 62
5.3.2 Performance - Twinning 64
5.4 Analysis of the data 66
5.5 Chapter Conclusion 69
Chapter 6 - Discussion and conclusion 70
6.2 Limitations 76
6.3 Conclusion 77
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CBI Country Brand Index
CILC Center for International Legal Cooperation
ENPI European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument
EU European Union
GI Governance Industry
GIO Governance Industry Organisations IEPG Instituto Elcano Presencia Global
IPA Instrument for Pre-Accession
MS Member State (Of the EU)
NBI Nation Brand Index
NCA Netherlands Court of Audit - De Algemene Rekenkamer NCP National Contact Point (Twinning)
NIMD Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy
ODA Official Development Assistance
RVO Rijksdienst Voor Ondernemend Nederland - Netherlands Enterprise Agency
SIGMA Support for Improvement in Governance and Management TAIEX Technical Assistance and Information Exchange
UvW Unie van Waterschappen - Dutch Water Authorities
VNG International Vereniging Nederlandse Gemeenten International - Netherlands Association of Municipalities International
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
Table 1. Nye’s Sources of Soft Power 13
Table 2. Overview of Soft Power Surveys 25
Table 3. Official Development Assistance of the Netherlands 39
Table 4. Mandated Body Criteria European Commission 42
Table 5. Criteria for the Governance Industry 42
Table 6. Criteria of the Governance Industry: Application 49-50
Table 7. Overview of Rankings and Index values 61
Table 8. The Performance of the Governance Industry in Twinning 65 Table A1. Soft Power Data Publicly Available (per year data collected) 85
Table A2. Soft Power Countries measured 85-86
Table B1. Interviewees’ Details 90
Table B2. Overview Main Responses 91
Table E1. The Performance of the GIO and other RVO organisations 191
Figure 1. Delineating the Research Question 04
Figure 2. Visualising the Possible Relationship 09
Figure 3. Power Continuum by Joseph Nye 12
Figure 4. Succes Ratio in Twinning 66
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted to a number of individuals in my private and professional sphere, for
motivation, interviews, corrections and revisions of all sorts. Specifically, I would like to thank Dr. Caspar van den Berg, who has very constructively analysed and critiqued my research, and Marc van den Muijzenberg, who has given me the opportunity to conduct this research and provided me with access to information and interview participants.
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
The Netherlands is famous for its liberal democratic values, for its long heritage as a world power and for its bicycle friendly cities (Bloomfield 2015, 2014, 2013, McClory, 2012a, 2011a, 2010a; Voorhoeve, 1979). The Dutch self-image is further characterised by “economic position, intellectual development and active participation in international organisations” (Voorhoeve, 1979; 12). The Netherlands is also famous for seeking consensus, including all stakeholders, or applying the “polder model”, whose worldwide renown and attractiveness indicate that the Dutch have been successful in conveying their way of thinking (Kromhout, 2006; Visser & Hemerijck, 1999,
Voorhoeve, 1979). The manner in which a country is attractive for others is covered by Nye’s concept of soft power, coined in 1990 (1990b). This research explores the extent to which foreign perception or soft power of the Netherlands as a whole, affects the performance of the governance industry. The governance industry is a concept developed for this research. 1
The polder model is important for this research, because it presents the Netherlands as a country with a strong public sector in which all voices are heard, which leads to international attention for the Netherlands. Thus, the polder model demonstrates Dutch soft power, it is attractive for countries abroad. Simultaneously, it presents Dutch norms and values in public governance.
This model of governance can to a certain extent be explained historically (Kromhout, 2006). Since 1255 the local Dutch water authorities cooperated intensively to build dykes, create polders and to stay dry, because the Netherlands lies partially below sea level. Since, this consensus model is embedded in Dutch culture, institutions and organisations (Kromhout, 2006). It is brought 2 up and used in discussions on Dutch coalition governments or on defining labour agreements between the government and the labor force (“CDA, PvdA en Christenunie kiezen voor
The term governance industry was coined by Marc van den Muyzenberg. See Van Den Muyzenberg, 2013. The term in
1
itself was not before used as an academic concept, and developed here. It is thus not a concept from previous academic literature, but has its roots in the practical.
For an extensive discussion of the consensus model see Lijphart, A. (1999). Patterns of Democracy: Government
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Forms and Performance in Thirty-six countries. New Haven, CO: Yale University Press. or Lijphart, A. (1977). Democracy in Plural Societies. London: Yale University Press.
poldermodel”, 2007; Eigenraam, 2013). Dutch public governance is thus permeated with a consensus modus operandus.
The Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Liliane Ploumen wants to focus more on exporting the polder model through development cooperation (“Ploumen wil poldermodel exporteren”, 2015). Countries have come to the Netherlands and its organisations to find solutions to their own policy problems. The Dutch organisations are involved in projects abroad, supporting countries in their transition. Many of these organisations or GIO (governance industry organisations) receive funds from Minister Ploumen to carry out their projects in assisting governments abroad, as their work can be characterised as development cooperation (Rijksoverheid, n.d.-a).
I argue that the Dutch governance industry transfers Dutch administrative traditions and policies (Yesilkagit, 2010); while all organisations aim to work from the demand side and explicitly do not intend to impose Dutch norms and values, they acknowledge that some Dutch norms and values seep into international projects, among which is the polder model (Appendix D, Chapter 4). Simultaneously they transfer Dutch expertise. Therefore, the organisations are involved in policy diffusion (Bomberg, 2007; True & Mintrom, 2001; Stone, 1999).
The puzzle this research aims to solve can be described as follows. Given the Dutch
expertise on public governance, as also recognised by Minister Ploumen, employees and employers in the sector pointed out that the governance industry is not living up to its potential (Appendix D, Chapter 4). Dutch Academic Services noting these expressions of opportunity for the industry to 3 grow, asked me to analyse the developments in the sector and find possible causes for these
developments, as part of an internship. The practical relevance of this study thus lies in establishing the bearings of the industry. It also adds to the importance that Minister Ploumen attaches to Dutch
A company founded in 2013 by Marc van den Muijzenberg, former Director of ROI, which is an organisation part of
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expertise on public governance and sheds a light on how the export of this knowledge contributes to the government’s Aid and Trade programme. This programme combines development aid with trade objectives (“Ploumen wil poldermodel exporteren”, 2015). More broadly, the Dutch central
government wants to present the Netherlands as a knowledge economy. Besides investing in education, investing in exporting knowledge is also relevant for achieving this goal. (Bruggen Slaan. Regeerakkoord, 2012; Vrijheid en Verantwoordelijkheid. Regeerakkoord, 2010).
By means of the governance industry, the Netherlands is active in policy diffusion, it transfers knowledge about policies and governance to other countries which want to learn from the Netherlands (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). This paper uses the terms donor country and beneficiary country to indicate who gives and who receives knowledge in this process. The literature on policy 4 diffusion mostly focuses on the beneficiary side of a knowledge transfer, indicating why and when a country will seek for knowledge. The donor country is limitedly discussed, only Richard Rose (1993) discusses ideological proximity as a reason as to why a donor country is selected. The literature review in Chapter 3 further demonstrates that the beneficiary country looks for a donor country which it deems successful in the policy field, which is the subject of the transfer.
“Soft power rests on the ability to shape the preferences of others” (Nye, 2004; 5). It shapes these by attraction and is ultimately defined by other’s perceptions of a country (Nye, 2004). It “relies on positive attraction in the sense of alluring” (Nye, 2011; 92). Nye (2004, 2011) argues that there are several soft power resources for a country and that the result of these can be measured by public opinion polls. The scientific relevance of this study is the attempt to research the donor country’s side of policy diffusion and explore whether it can be connected to soft power.
Furthermore, the effects of soft power have not been applied to the governance industry. Last, the governance industry is an undeveloped concept. This study seeks to establish its bearings and thus
In line with De Jong (2002) who uses the terms host country and donor country to identify the country learning (host)
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and the country giving (donor). This research replaces host with beneficiary in line with terms used in the field of the GI.
also addresses an empirical question: What is the governance industry? This research does not seek to dissect Nye’s soft power framework for its effectiveness or how it can be used practically . Soft 5 power is assumed as an existing power to be reckoned with internationally and as a valuable analytical concept (Eggereide, 2012).
Connecting the governance industry, policy diffusion and soft power, defines the research question of this study: How has the Dutch soft power influenced policy diffusion by means of the Dutch governance industry over the past ten years? The limit of ten years is defined by data availability for this study. Figure 1 presents the linear connection between the concepts of the research question. Chapter 2 further explores the linear relationship and presents what this relationship could look like based on existing knowledge. (Figure 2, page 09). To analyse the governance industry, this research is exploratory and first seeks to answer what the governance industry is. For the research question the dependent variable is: the performance of the governance industry over the past 10 years. Whereas the independent variable is the developments in Dutch soft power over the past 10 years.
Multiple broader questions are considered in the discussion of this research. Like every industry, the Dutch governance industry experiences periods of growth and contraction. This
research aims to shed light on to what extent these developments can be explained by the popularity of the Netherlands worldwide. Furthermore, can organisations from a country be considered
For a conceptual analysis of Nye’s soft power concept see: Eggereide 2012.
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separately from their national heritage? Last, can we speak of how the organisations working abroad influence a country’s soft power, making it a virtues circle?
The outline of this study is as follows. Chapter 2 discusses the literature pertaining to this research and seeks to make a connection between the different fields. Chapter 3 outlines the research design of this study and discusses how the variables have been operationalised and what the rationale for this is. Chapter 4 seeks to explore the concept of the governance industry by discussing several criteria for the organisations, why they meet the criteria and gives an insider perspective into the industry. The following Chapter 5 presents the data found for both variables of the research question and analyses the data, connects them to the concepts presented in Chapter 2 and discusses the possible relationship between the two variables. Last, Chapter 6 outlines what the findings of the analysis mean by a discussion, it also delineates the limitations and gives concluding remarks.
CHAPTER 2 - REVIEWING THE LITERATURE
The former chapter introduced the research subject and discussed the scope and the relevance of this research. This chapter outlines the literature connected to this study. First, the mechanism of policy diffusion is discussed, then how it relates to soft power, and how both are connected to the governance industry. Then it is discussed what soft power entails, who it was developed by and what its pitfalls are. Last I discuss how the concepts of this research connect and present what the relationship could look like based on the literature review.
2.1 Policy Diffusion
Research on policy diffusion has attempted to conceptualise how policies transfer from one state to another (Radaelli, 2000; Simmons and Elkins, 2004; Tolbert and Zucker, 1983, True and Mintrom, 2001). Policy diffusion is the process by which policies or institutions move between countries, organisations or other networks. Researchers have also extensively analysed policy diffusion within the European Union, looking at the diffusion of environmental policies (Bomberg, 2007; Ven, 2005), or at drug policies (Arif & Gurere, 2014), and at Europeanisation (Grabbe, 2001). Other similar terms for this process are policy transfer (Dolowitz & Marsh, 1996), policy learning (Stone, 1999), knowledge transfer (Argote & Ingram, 2000; Tsai, 2001) or lesson-drawing (Rose, 1993), where knowledge transfer is often used in a corporate context. “Policy transfer, emulation and lesson drawing all refer to a process in which knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements, institutions etc. in one time and/or place is used in the development of policies, administrative arrangements and institutions in another time and/or place” (Dolowitz & Marsh, 199; 344). The governance industry organisations (GIO) are active in policy diffusion, because they assist in capacity building abroad, the policies thus diffuse by means of these organisations. Policy-makers in beneficiary countries, look abroad for solutions to their problems (Ibid.). However, policy
diffusion is a broad conceptual framework, which may not provide a model (Radaelli, 2000). Therefore, literature on organisational theory is also considered.
In 1983 DiMaggio and Powell, coined “institutional isomorphism” in “The Iron Cage Revisited”. They (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) attempted to explain why organisations become more homogenous when they reside in the same organisational field. According to them institutional isomorphism can occur in three ways; through coercion, mimesis and through a normative process. Coercive isomorphism occurs when pressures for change are exerted from one party onto another. Mimetic processes take place when there is uncertainty, which can stem from, i.e. ambiguous goals. When uncertainty prevails, the organisations model themselves after other organisations which they deem successful at that point in time. This process can occur intentionally or unintentionally.
Normative isomorphism stems from professionalisation; ‘the collective struggle of members of an occupation to define the conditions and methods of their work, to control the “production of producers” and to establish a cognitive base and legitimation for their occupational autonomy (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; 152, quotation marks in original).” This theoretical model can be applied to countries; DiMaggio and Powell (1983) themselves highlight the case of Japan, which attempted to model its new governmental structures after successful western prototypes.
The framework developed by DiMaggio and Powell (1983) has become one of the most cited in institutional theory, and even formed the foundations for new institutionalism (Beckert, 2010). Mizruchi and Fein (1999) even argue that because of different interpretation of DiMaggio and Powell’s work, organisational knowledge has been socially constructed. They review twenty-six articles on their use of DiMaggio and Powell’s three pillars; coercion, mimesis and normative. They identify (up until 1995) only two articles which have operationalised all three. One (Levitt & Nass, 1989) analyses organisational convergence in the college-text book publishing industry, and applies mimesis as pure imitation in the case of uncertainty, and as this industry is according to their research extremely volatile, mimesis is often made use of. They operationalise coercion as the
pressure from the state or state-like bodies onto the industry in its entirety, not on the organisations themselves. They identify the strictly regulated environment of higher education in general as pressurising the sector to harmonise the content of college text books. Last, they see normative isomorphism as paradigms, and for their case relate it to the normative structure of academics (Ibid.). It is clear that these researchers applied DiMaggio and Powell’s framework on to the entire industry. For this research, a similar application would mean that one can only look for increases or decreases of policy diffusion in general. A rise of uncertainty worldwide, would increase the
prevalence of mimetic processes. However, relevant is the Dutch perceived success factor, as is outlined by DiMaggio and Powell as what determines whether a country is looked at for policies. Hence, if other countries deem the Netherlands to be successful in a certain policy field, they are likely to select the Netherlands as a donor country for that policy field.
Painters and Peters (2010) argue that all three ways of institutional isomorphism can be applied to countries and how these go about institutional reform. This distinction is relevant for this research, because other countries are relying upon Dutch organisations for public reform. Radaelli (2000) strongly builds on DiMaggio and Powell’s institutional isomorphism and applies it to the European context. She argues that the element of coercion does not pertain to the European Union (EU), as the policy process does not revolve around one institution. The normative process applies slightly when i.e. ad hoc committees are formed to solve a particular problem. Most applicable is mimesis; EU-policy making is characterised by a great level of uncertainty, and countries are thus likely to adopt policies that work well elsewhere. The framework of DiMaggio and Powell (1983) is thus important for this research, because it identifies that the donor country needs to be perceived as successful in whichever policy or structure the beneficiary is seeking for role models. Factors which influence the eventual decision of the beneficiary for a certain donor country are money,
geographical propinquity and ideological propinquity (Rose, 1993). However, this research aims to uncover how the donor country can influence this selection process by being perceived as
successful. Literature on soft power can highlight this, because it shows how successful a country is at profiling itself internationally (Nye, 2004, 2011).
The relationship between policy diffusion, power and discourse is analysed by Sharman (2008), he outlines how anti-money laundering polices have diffused in several developing countries more by the means of power than by mimetic, coercive or normative processes. Where Sharman (2008) defines normative as competition. Sharman (2008) thus argues that power plays a strong role in policy diffusion, but does not discuss how soft power can play a role in policy
diffusion. This gap in the literature, identified in the piece of Sharman, but also in other literature on policy diffusion and institutional isomorphism, has led me to consider how soft power plays a role in this process. Soft power (Nye, 2004) is the power of attraction, thus can hypothetically influence who is looked for when policy solutions are sought for. Figure 2 demonstrates the hypothetical positive relationship between soft power and the eventual project acquisition rate of the GIO.
2.2 Soft Power by Joseph S. Nye
One of the most famous works on power is “Politics among nations: the struggle for power and peace” by Hans Morgenthau, written in 1948. Morgenthau distinguishes between material power and political power. The latter is the ability to alter the perceptions of other nations to get a desired outcome. He states that part of international politics is a competition over “man’s control over the minds and actions of other men” (Morgenthau, 1948; 26). He argues that this political power can be wielder through “orders, threats or persuasion” (Morgenthau, 2948; 27). It is this last element; persuasion, which Joseph S. Nye seeks to develop further. Nye seeks to conceptualise the power of attraction, which is embedded in persuasion.
Joseph S. Nye coins the concept of soft power with the end of the Cold War as a backdrop. In “Bound to Lead” (1990a) Nye analyses the changes in the balance of power after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He discusses that power is as difficult to measure as love, yet easy to see around us (Nye, 1990a). The power transitions on the world stage at the time, led Nye to consider the other side of power; indirect or co-optive power, contrasted to command or coercive power. Nye (1990a) argues it is utilised successfully when a state convinces another state to follow its directions because it wants to, not because it is coerced to. According to Nye (1990a) the ability to utilise this type of power is often associated with “intangible resources such as culture, ideology, and
institutions” (Nye, 1990a; 32). He states that “[t]his [other] dimension of power can be thought of as soft power, in contrast to the hard command power usually associated with tangible resources like military and economic strength” (Nye, 1990a; 32, italics added). And so if a country’s values are considered as attractive by others, these others will more likely follow these values.
The context of Nye’s first (1990a) observations were thus the changing balance of power. He also noted how the rise of information technology influenced this change (Nye, 1990a) and how it will in the future (Nye & Keohane, 1998). For both counts that “attention [is] the scarce resource” (Ibid.; 89), and to employ information for a specific purpose, credibility and reputation are key
(Ibid., 1998). To expand on the concept of soft power, Nye wrote: “Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics” (2004). Over time his concept has been criticised (Mattern, 2005; Ramo, 2009) and utilised (Melissen, 2005; Ding, 2008; Huang & Ding, 2006). To address these critiques he wrote “The Future of Power” (Nye, 2011).
Soft power is not the opposite of military force (Atkinson, 2010; Nye, 2011). Soft power shapes the preferences of others to ensure that the other acts according to your preferences. There is a fine line between getting the other to do what you want, and getting the other to want what you want (Eggereide, 2012). The latter is what goes on in the mind, and thus hard to measure. In world politics a country may be able to achieve certain goals because other states choose to act similarly. It is also an important aspect of national democracies, where political leaders act in a landscape of compromises and agreements and use soft power to achieve their preferences (Vuving, 2009). However, it is not equal to influence, as this can also be achieved by hard power. It also goes beyond simple persuasion; “it is the ability to attract” (Nye, 2004; 06). The assets of a country that produce soft power, produce attraction. Nye (2004) argues that the extent to which a country is capable of wielding this attraction can be measured careful process tracing or by polls, which is considered later in this research when the quantification of Dutch soft power is outlined.
The relationship between hard and soft power is a continuum (See Figure 3). Both are part of achieving a certain goal, but they differ in the nature of behaviour that is exerted and in the tangibility of the assets (Eggereide, 2012). Hard power often leans on command power, whereas soft power is more co-optive. In terms of the nature of behaviour hard and soft power range, respectively from coercion to economic inducement to agenda setting to pure attraction.
Nevertheless, the relationship between the nature of behaviour, the asset used and the outcome is not perfect. Coercion may sometimes be applied to establish institutions which later become legitimate sources of soft power (Nye, 2004, 2011). This also means that soft power affects hard power and vice versa, but soft power does not depend on hard power. A country, such as Norway,
can be very successful in negotiating a peace treaty, but only have limited military force (Nye, 2004), the same can be said of the Netherlands (Nye & Keohane, 1998).
There are three levels to understanding the concept of soft power. First, soft power resources, then soft power behaviour, and last the results of soft power (Nye, 2004; 6-7). The relationships or distinctions between the three are complex and challenging to disentangle (Eggereide, 2012), because soft power is concerned with the minds and hearts of others.
2.3 Sources of Soft Power
Soft power has three basic resources; culture, political values and foreign policies. In his books, Nye (2004, 2011) distinguishes between the basic resources of soft power and the specific conditions for them to be effective. Table 1 outlines an overview of how Nye (2004, 2011) delineates soft power resources.
Figure 3. Power Continuum by Joseph Nye
Hard Soft
Spectrum of Behaviors
Command Co-opt
Most Likely Resources
2.3.1 Culture
“Culture is the set of values and practices that create meaning for a society (Nye, 2004; 11)”. Soft power from culture can increase when a country purports universal values, values to which many countries can relate or want to relate. Nye (2004) argues that context is the most important conditionality for cultural values to increase soft power. “Tanks are not a great military power resource in swamps or jungles. Coal and steel are not major power resources if a country lacks an industrial base (Nye, 2004; 12).” If it were the US’s mission to promote the rule of law in China, it might be more successful showing Hollywood films about going to court, than discussions about the subject by an US official (Nye, 2004). As popular culture is not the only manner in which culture emanates from a source, one should also consider tourism, exchange programs, and
professional visits as sources of cultural soft power. So the condition for culture to be considered as a soft power resource is “[whether] it is in a place where it is attractive to others (Nye, 2011; 84)
There are several difficulties with culture as a source of soft power (Eggereide, 2012; Ferguson, 2004). First, it is not always under control of the government and can thus have averse effects. Popular songs or movies may be challenging government policy, which can influence its
Table 1. Nye’s Sources of Soft Power
Sources Condition Indicators
Culture Context Foreign students
Popular culture Sports
Political Values Alignment Trust in Government
Participation in Voluntary organisations
Foreign Policy Legitimacy Development Aid
Promoting broadly shared values Humility
credibility abroad (Nye, 2004). For example, protest songs during the Vietnam war. However, if a country presents itself as a liberal democracy, it can be considered beneficial when the citizens can protest by means of protest songs. Second, different groups within the beneficiary country may respond differently to the exertion of soft power through cultural values, which makes it not a uniform resource. Every country has several strata in society, younger or more liberal generations may be more favourable towards popular culture from other countries, than the older or more conservative generations. In the case of strongly religious countries, older generations may even consider some popular culture to mock their religious beliefs (Nye, 2004). Third (Nye, 2004), popular culture is subject to change, so is its interpretation. It can therefore not be guaranteed that a certain expression of popular culture will have a lasting or the intended impact.
2.3.2 Political Values
Political values are the second soft power resource influencing a country’s attractiveness (Vuving, 2009, Nye, 2011). The conditionality for political values to be a source of soft power is “when [the country] lives up to them at home and abroad” (Nye, 2011; 84). Domestic policies of racial segregation in the United States in the 1950’s undercut the US’s soft power in Africa. It is considered hypocritical and thus works aversively (Nye, 2004). This source of soft power can be heavily eroded when a government is hypocritical about values and policies, or when a country acts very unlike otherwise similar countries.
Aligning values and policies is thus key. Indicators of this alignment at home are trust in government and participation in voluntary organisations. The first is important because people trust their government when it pursues those goals it says it will pursue and also indicates a certain level of transparency. The second is an indicator of social participation, which Nye claims important as it shows people’s confidence in their own societies (Nye, 2004).
2.3.3 Foreign Policies
The key components of foreign policy as a soft power resource are substance and style. By substance Nye (2004) means how broadly or narrowly we define the interests we need to pursue abroad, and style is the manner in which we pursue these. Since soft power is about how we are perceived by others, it matters in which manner we frame our foreign objectives. Nye (2004) makes a point similar to cultural and domestic values; he discusses that broad and inclusive policies are more attractive than narrowly defined policies. Indicators of foreign policy soft power are the extent to which a country engages in development aid, or promotes broadly shared values. In terms of style humility can be a great source of soft power
For foreign policies of promoting human rights and democracy, the US produced soft power in Argentina in the 1970’s. However, as goes for cultural values, context remains very important, promoting democracy can be considered positive, whereas an interpretation of promoting western values, can also be considered as arrogance and decrease soft power (Nye, 2004). The condition for any effectiveness is thus “when others see [the values] as legitimate and having moral
authority” (Nye, 2011; 84).
Nye (2004) talks about soft power resources as a game of poker. A country’s soft power resources only speak to its potential. Being dealt a good hand, does not mean you will win. This is where the right soft power behaviour can help, which is discussed in the next section.
2.4 Soft Power Behaviour
“[H]ard to use, easy to lose, and costly to reestablish” (Nye, 2011; 83), is how Nye characterises soft power. It is not owned by the government in the same manner as hard power (Nye, 2004), but relies heavily on the government’s credibility (Nye, 2011). Ultimately soft power is made up of intangible resources, and wielding these takes skill (Nye, 2004, as cited in Eggereide,
2012). As aforementioned, soft power is contingent upon attraction, the soft power resources outlined in section 2.3 can produce attraction, provided that the right conditions are present.
Alexander Vuving (as cited by Nye, 2011) distinguishes between three elements of
attraction; benignity, competence and charisma. Being considered as benign produces sympathy and trust. Competence generates admiration and respect. Charisma creates a perception of inspiration and adherence (Vuving, 2009). Benignity can translate in to soft power, because it demonstrates the donor country’s benevolent nature, this invites benevolence in return. Because competence
generates admiration, this can lead to replication. And the inspiration generated by charisma leads to soft power, because it demonstrates being true to ones values (Vuving, 2009). Nye argues that these three elements can attract people to charismatic leaders, and create an enabling environment for soft power (Nye, 2011), which is what he calls an indirect effect.
Soft power behaviour is about wielding soft power, and it lies in public diplomacy, and bilateral and multilateral diplomacy. The latter concerning state to state relations, and the first state to public relations (Nye, 2004, 31). In wielding soft power through public diplomacy the donor country has to consider three distinct time spans; daily communication, strategic communication and developing long-term lasting relationships. This is important, because public diplomacy is more than conveying and building a certain image; long lasting relationships prove the strongest (Nye, 2011).
Nevertheless, wielding soft power is difficult, because its results eventually lie in the eyes of the beholder, in the hearts and minds of the beneficiary. Furthermore, it is dependent upon
intentions, the perspective, timing and skill (Eggereide, 2012).
2.5 Results of Soft Power?
Eventually the effectiveness of wielding soft power through public diplomacy or multi- or bilateral diplomacy depends upon the goal. It depends on the desired outcome for which the soft
power is wielded. If the soft power is wielded with as a goal a favourable vote in an international organisations, this can be easily measured. However, soft power usually builds long-term
relationships between countries, and bases these upon attractiveness. This can only be measured by minds changed, according to Nye best measured by interviews or polls, or in the case of a strategic objective, like a vote, by careful process tracing (Nye, 2011). 6
That it is difficult to measure soft power resources, behaviour and results, does not make it less real or relevant (Nye, 2004;6).
2.6 Nye’s application to the United States
Nye (2004) first applies his own framework to the United States. For cultural values Nye (2004) first argues that international students, or future leaders who have studied in the US, are highly valuable as a soft power resource. Nye (2004) brings up George Kennan (as cited in Nye, 2004), who argued that cultural contact is highly effective as a means to combating negative impressions of a country. Especially because these cultural exchanges, via exchange students, are often reserved for elite groups, who will likely have an influence in the future development of their home country. Second, Nye (2004) outlines the influence of popular culture, where Hollywood can be considered to have further reaching importance than Harvard. Where the exchange student’s impact is limited to the elite, Hollywood reaches all layers of society. Critics argue that popular culture portrays plain commercialism, which Nye (2004) counters by arguing that popular culture contains subliminal messages about fundamental values of the US. Third (Nye, 2004), the fact that outside of the US it seems that if one trains hard and is dedicated one can become a popular sportsman or sportswoman, strongly conveys the US sentiment about a free society where class is of lesser importance. However, that sports portray this image abroad, does not make it true (Ries,
To uncover whether soft power was at work, or whether the vote would be casted favourably for any other reason.
1994). Last, music plays a great role in conveying cultural values, and can have a real political impact (Nye, 2004).
The sum of these various aspects of cultural values have brought the United States much success in world politics and in achieving their foreign policy goals (Nye, 2004). The rebuilding of Europe after the Second World War was partially influenced by the American values about freedom, liberty and modernity (Nye, 2004), the end of the Cold War was according to Nye (2004) also guided by the influence of television and American popular culture. Other examples of foreign policy goals he brings up are destabilising the apartheid regime in South Africa, supporting democratic governance in Latin America and promoting liberal market values worldwide (Nye, 2004).
By domestic values as soft power resources of the United States Nye (2004) refers to
concepts as democracy and human rights and outlines that arguments on hypocrisy are used most to criticise the US in this regard. The prison in Guantanamo Bay serves as a strong example; the US claims to uphold universal human rights after signing and ratifying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, but violates these at a substantial level by subjecting the prisoners to torture and denying them the right to a fair process (Steyn, 2004). Despite this, American values as
freedom of expression and individualism are admired (Nye, 2004). Nye (2004) clarifies that admiration does not imply that countries or people seek to become exactly alike.
The indicators for political values mentioned in the previous section point towards the “quality of American society” (Nye, 2004; 58), and thus its attractiveness (Nye, 2004). One must note that a decline is not as harmful to soft power when similar countries are facing the same type of decline, as relatively the US then remains in place. Soft power mostly erodes when a country is dissimilar to otherwise similar countries, for the US this is capital punishment and the absence of proper gun-control (Nye, 2004).
In terms of foreign policy and its inclusiveness Nye (2004) brings up the example of the influence of the US in Europe after the Second World War, the great sharing of values made the US attractive for Europe at the time.
2.7 Critique on Soft Power
Naturally, there are limits to the theory of soft power, Nye (2004) argues that some deny its existence and dismiss the influence of cultural and political values as simply cultural influence. His argument is that these sceptics find power to be a deliberate act of command and control, and deny the structural long-term aspect of power. The latter can ensure that there is no need for the first (Nye, 2004). Another limit is the conditions under which soft power is most likely to be of influence (Nye, 2004). One of which is ideological proximity, of which Richard Rose (1993) also speaks. When the public’s opinion is already favourable, it is more likely that soft power will lead to desired outcomes. Third, soft power has more influence on achieving long-term structural goals, as
promoting democracy and open markets, then short-term goals, as protecting allies or controlling borders. Two more limits of soft power identified by sceptics are the lack of governmental control and the fact that soft power is measured as an opinion. Nye (2004, 2011) argues that just because soft power is partially a product of culture, does not mean that it should be denied. The fact that a government in a liberal country should not control its cultural products, for Nye (2004) means that it should at all times aim to reinforce the cultural values in its political values, especially
considering the globalisation of information. The government is no longer the sole provider of information, and people are thus more heavily influenced by other information and perspectives. Last, sceptics state that opinion polls are measures of a moment and can only be reliable if conducted over the period of many years in the same manner and context. Nye (2004) does not dismiss this but states that it is a good first indicator of popularity and the costs that weigh on a government when implementing unpopular policies.
Eggereide (2012), discusses several critiques on soft power and categorises them as follows. Gleam on the sword; soft power is merely a reflection of hard power. It is considered U.S.-centric; where critiques range from stating that the very nature of the concept is an expression of US
exceptionalism to limited possibility for extrapolation. Last, it is fuzzy; critics argue that the concept depends too much on context and conditionality to be useful academically and practically.
Eggereide (2012) reviews the several critiques and argues them to be minor. Respectively, because soft power was not intended as a replacement for hard power, merely to complement it, because just “[s]ome of Nye’s formulations are U.S.-centric, but the basic definition [is universal]” (Eggereide, 2012; 64-65), and because the critics eventually do recognise that soft power is real and useful, but phrase it in another manner (Eggereide, 2012).
2.8 Concepts Connected
The concepts presented in this chapter are policy diffusion, institutional isomorphism and soft power. Isomorphism, as discussed by DiMaggio and Powell (1983), entails that organisations, or countries, develop and eventually become more homogenous. It is argued (Ibid.) that this occurs via normative, mimetic or coercive processes. Policy diffusion is the process by which certain policies spread between organisations, countries or within other networks (Dolowitz & Marsh, 1996). It can be argued that isomorphism applies to policy diffusion in the following manner. A country can be coerced into adopting a certain policy, when it is threatened with military or
economic forces. Second, because of globalisation countries are more connected on many levels so we can speak of socialisation on a normative level. And third, when a country encounters a problem it will look towards other countries for solutions, the mimetic process (Dolowitz & Marsh, 1996).
When a donor country is selected for a knowledge transfer, it is able to spread its policies and institutions, which can be beneficial for trade or worldwide stability. It is thus in a country’s interest to be selected for a transfer. However, the literature on policy diffusion, knowledge transfer,
lesson-drawing or institution isomorphism, only points towards perceived successfulness as an element which plays a role in the decision-making process for selecting a certain donor country. Soft power is also about perceived successfulness, as Nye (2004) argues, soft power is about
attraction, about portraying oneself as attractive (Vuving, 2009). This research seeks to connect soft power to policy diffusion and institutional isomorphism, because soft power is a measurement of attractiveness. I argue that if a country is perceived as attractive, this influences the extent to which it is selected for policy diffusion.
2.9 Chapter Conclusion
This chapter discussed the literature pertaining to this research. The governance industry is active in the field of policy diffusion; the organisations transfer Dutch norms, values and policies by conducting capacity building projects abroad. The literature on policy diffusion mostly gives
attention to the beneficiary side of the story. The manner in which a donor country can influence the selection is limitedly discussed. The literature states that a beneficiary country will look for
countries which they deem successful in the policy field. Soft power is the power of attraction, and I argue that soft power influences the process of policy diffusion.
Despite the limitations of soft power it can still be considered as an important analytical tool in the field of political science (Eggereide, 2012). For this research its existence is assumed, despite its difficult operationalisation. The discussion part of this research reflects on how the complexity of soft power affects this research. Ultimately I aim to discover whether its existence affects the
governance industry, and as much to what extent it is a complex concept. In sum, an analysis of the effect of Dutch soft power resources onto Dutch soft power behaviour and results, is outside of the scope of this research. However, based on the literature review in this chapter the relationship between the variables could be characterised as follows; an increase in Dutch soft power could lead to an increase in the performance of the governance industry.
The next chapter outlines the research design of this study, the operationalisation of the two concepts and reviews the reliability and validity of this study.
CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH DESIGN 3.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses the methodology of this research. It outlines the operationalisation for both variables and discusses the validity and reliability of this study. This study has a mixed-method approach, but is of an exploratory nature. Hence it makes use of quantitative and qualitative data to explore a relationship between soft power and the performance of the governance industry. First, the operationalisation of Dutch soft power is discussed, and second the measurements for the
performance of the governance industry. Last, the reliability and validity are outlined.
3.2 Measuring Dutch Soft Power
The independent variable for this research is the Dutch soft power over the past 10 years. The data for the analysis of this variable are taken from several internationally validated surveys, conducted by organisations on a yearly basis. Below I briefly discuss the surveys and outline my decision to combine them.
Measuring and observing soft power is a central theme of Nye’s “Soft Power” (2004). “Simply put, in behavioural terms, soft power is attractive power. In terms of resources, soft-power resources are the assets that produce such attraction” (Nye, 2004;6). Nye (2004) argues that whether a resource produces attraction is best measured by conducting a yearly public opinion survey. Nye (2004) argues that if over a long time span the survey questions are asked in the same manner, a survey can be a powerful tool to measure soft power. However, to determine whether the potential soft power resources achieve the wanted policy goals, has to be determined in each individual case (Nye, 2004; 4). “His indicators for soft power potential are:
• opinion polls on international popularity of/admiration for culture and policies; • statistics on trade and economy;
• statistics on scientific innovation or Nobel Prize winners. (Nye, as cited in Eggereide, 2012; 90-91)”
Nye’s indicators were taken into account in deciding upon the soft power surveys for this research. The reason to combine several surveys lies in the difficulty of operationalising Nye’s (2004, 2011) framework, the operationalisation is subject to interpretation (Eggereide, 2012) and by combining the surveys this limit can be overcome (Bryman, 2012). Furthermore, to expand the time frame of this research, several surveys had to be combined.
The surveys were purposively selected, using a snowball and criterion sampling method. The Netherlands had to be part of the survey, it had to measure soft power or public opinion and the data needed to be publicly available. The Monocle Soft Power Survey of 2010 was the starting point, where several other surveys were mentioned (McClory, 2010, 2011, 2012).
Under review here are the Elcano Global Presence Index, Monocle’s Soft Power Survey, and the Anholt-GFK Roper Nation Brands Index. Portland’s Soft Power 30 (McClory, 2015) has also been looked at, because of its collaboration with Joseph Nye. However, at the time of writing it was their first year, and thus no fluctuations can be measured, yet. However, as Joseph Nye gives his blessing for this project, it is looked at in evaluating the others.
Other surveys looked at are the BBC World Service Country Ratings Poll, the Gallup Global Attitudes Survey, the Pew Global Attitudes Project and the Country Brand Index by Future Brand. However, the first does not include the Netherlands, the second is a paid service and this does not fall into the scope of this master thesis research project, the third measures various types of opinions about countries worldwide but nothing similar to general popularity, perception or another similar rating to soft power and the last only publishes its top ten, which does not include the Netherlands.
Below, the methods and data availability of the selected three are evaluated. Table 3 demonstrates a brief overview. Appendix A provides an overview of the data availability per year and the countries measured in the surveys. The countries that were not measured in all polls at the
same time do not affect the position of the Netherlands in any survey, because they are all categorised as sitting below the Netherlands on all rankings.
3.2.1 Elcano Global Presence Index
The Global Presence Index (IEPG) is a project of the Elcano Royal Institute for strategic and international studies. The index is divided into three separate dimensions; economy, defence and soft presence. Only the methodology and the data for the last are considered for this research. The IEPG researchers state that the functions of their index aim at analysing global trends in
international presence, where they highlight the play between soft and hard power. A second function is to provide a tool for foreign policy making (Olivié, García-Calvo & Gracia, 2015). By Global Presence the authors mean: “a country’s effective positioning, or projection, in absolute terms - in the economy, in society, in the global political and military realms, and all in the current context of globalisation (Olivié & Molina, 2011; 33)”.
They have started to analyse global presence of 1990 to shed light on the transforming world after the Cold War had ended. This makes that there is data available from 1990, 1995, 2005, 2010, then they moved to yearly intervals; 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. So there are six years of consecutive data available, and there is the opportunity to consider the earlier data as well (Ibid.).
Table 2. Overview of Soft Power Surveys
Including NL Data availability Measures? The Global Presence Index Yes. 1990, 1995, 2005,
2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Soft Presence
Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index
Yes. 2005, 2006, 2007,
2008
Public Opinion
Monocle’s Soft Power Survey
Yes. 2010, 2011, 2012,
2013, 2014, 2015
The yearly research reports of the index are not all published, but the institute has developed an interactive website where one can find all data for all countries measured.
Their methodology is as follows. To establish their indicators, they created several criteria. These include that the “results of the presences are measured, and not the means or assets needed to achieve these results (Olivié, García-Calvo & Gracia, 2015; 78)” and that “hard data on presence are taken, and not data based on judgements or opinions (Ibid.)”. To analyse their soft presence, they draw from the following indicators; Migration, Tourism, Sports, Culture, Information,
Technology, Science, Education and Development Cooperation. Nye (2004) points out that tourism, sports, and education are definitely all elements of the cultural soft power, whereas development cooperation is an element of foreign policy. As is outlined by their criteria they do not take into consideration any subjective measure of soft presence. However, as they measure the results of the global presence, it can be argued to still be partially subjective, as results of global presence or soft power are subject to perception (Eggereide, 2012).
In their first publication after a three year discussion on methodology, they highlight that what they measure is not that which may lead to greater presence internationally, but what this presence is. As an example they point out that they do include trade and financial flows, but not GDP. As the latter does not automatically lead to bigger global presence. This is part of their Transnational dimension criterium (Olivié & Molina, 2011). Nye (2004) follows the same line. For example, he argues that a source of soft power is the extent to which a country takes part in
development aid programmes, and not so much the extent to which a country has the financial resources to do so.
To overcome a limit of comparability over time, the researchers have recalculated the data from 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 after re-evaluating their method in 2011 (Olivié & Molina, 2012). The data in the Explora website are the most recent ones, and these are used in the
3.2.2 Anholt-GFK Roper Nation Brands Index
The Nation Brands Index (NBI) was developed in 2005 by Simon Anholt, because he argues, similar to Nye (2004), that a nation’s brand is important in today’s world where “countries compete with each other for attention, respect, trust of investors, tourists, consumers, donors, immigrants, the media and the governments of other nations: so a powerful and positive nation brand provides a crucial competitive advantage” (Anholt, 2005a; 01). Furthermore, it aims to overcome Nye’s only reservedness about public opinion: its ephemerality. The NBI “isn’t calibrated to track people’s responses to short-term events: it is designed to measure the real, underlying brand power of each country, its fundamental attractiveness (Anholt, 2005b; 04). Simon Anholt is
considered a world leader in knowledge about national branding and public identity. He was also part of the UK Public Diplomacy Board (Anholt, 2008).
The survey started in 2005 and until 2008 the Nation Brands Index continued to survey (and publish) each quarter. As of 2008, this was only yearly. At this point Simon Anholt started to
cooperate with GfK Roper. Until 2009 the reports are well available online, after this date GfK Roper has not published them in the public domain and they are only available on subscription for governments or anyone can request a customised report for roughly 50,000 USD (M. Alvarez-Loewenstein at GfK Roper, personal communication, December 13, 2015).
The method of this project focuses on people’s opinion of countries. In the first year they asked people about Tourism, Export, People, Governance, Culture and Heritage, and Investment and Immigration. They claim that all of these can have an effect on the nation’s brand. In the first year only ten countries were included in the survey, as population and as participants. They were not asked questions about their own countries. By 2008 this had increased to polling 1,000 people in 20 out of the 35 population countries, and 200-500 in each of the remaining 15 countries. Note that they do not mention soft power or Nye’s (2004) framework at all, but Nye (2004, 2011) argues that a public opinion survey is the best measure for soft power.
3.2.3 Monocle’s Soft Power Survey
Monocle’s Soft Power Survey is created in collaboration with the UK based Institute for Government (IfG). Their index was the first of its kind to measure soft power. It operationalised the various components of Nye’s soft power framework and measured them objectively and
subjectively. The data for the latter are considered by an expert panel, which assesses the various countries included in the survey based on seven distinct factors. The Soft Power 30 from Portland states that for their operationalisation they have drawn from the design of Monocle and IfG. It seems that the author has switched or works for multiple organisations as he first wrote “The New Persuaders: An international ranking of soft power”, in 2010 and the consecutive reports for Monocle by the IfG on soft power. And later wrote “The Soft Power 30: A Global Ranking of Soft Power” in 2015 for the collaboration between Portland, Facebook and ComRes (McClory, 2015).
The collaboration between Monocle and the IfG is based on Monocle having experience in covering soft power issues in their monthly magazine. The magazine has a global network of
readers and writers and aims to provide the IfG with feelers worldwide (McClory, 2010). They have started assessing international soft power in 2009, producing their first publication in 2010.
Monocle has thus far published lists starting in January 2010 until January 2016. Note that the publications are based on data from the years before. Therefore they have data available for six years (McClory, 2010). However, the IfG has only drawn up reports for the first three years.
Monocle has published the rankings of the last three years, but only a summary of the report in their magazine.
Their methodology is based on the three pillars developed by Nye, which are highlighted in the literature review, but they expand this based on the existing literature on soft power to five categories; Culture, Government, Education, Diplomacy and Business/Innovation. They highlight the manner in which Nye defines the three pillars and how they operationalise these; for cultural values they note that Nye deems these influential when other countries can easily identify with
them, so they ensure that quality and reach of a nations cultural output are measured, because simple mass production does not lead to influence. Hence their indicators include incoming tourists, native language, and sport successes. Their considerations for the operationalisation of the cultural value pillar show that they really aim to employ Nye’s framework (McClory, 2010).
As Nye (2004) also notes that soft power is about perception, the organisation has considered the subjective side of soft power. Despite the fact that Nye points out that soft power should be measured by a public opinion poll, they aim to operationalise this by employing an expert panel. They chose to let the panel’s outcomes weigh less strongly then the objective measures by a 30 to 70 ratio (McClory, 2010).
3.2.4 Combining the Surveys
By combining the surveys I aim to overcome the difficulties of interpretation concerning Nye’s operationalisation of soft power, as outlined in Chapter 2 (Eggereide, 2012) Furthermore, Nye argues that objective measures for soft power are at least as important as subjective measures. “[B]ecause the index prioritises the soft power resources that exist in reality. Opinion is important, but The Soft Power 30 aims to measure objective, tangible assets that contribute to a country’s soft power (McClory, 2015; 20).” Combining the three would thus lead to the most reliable measure for soft power for this research, because it combines objective and subjective measures. In the future I would argue that the Soft Power 30 should be used, as it has the backing from Joseph Nye.
The selection of the three surveys is thus based on; data availability, incorporating Nye’s indicators as mentioned in section 3.1, completing each other in terms of availability per year and distinctive operationalisations.
3.3 Measuring the Performance of the Governance Industry
The dependent variable is performance of the governance industry over the past 10 years. It is measured quantitatively and qualitatively. For the quantitative measurement performance is defined as amount of projects won in a public tender. The twinning exercise serves as a proxy, and this is explained in section 3.3.1. The qualitative data were acquired conducting fourteen interviews, 11 within the population and 3 key informants. These interviews had two functions; determining the governance industry’s performance over the past 10 years from an insider perspective and providing information on the governance industry in general. Because the performance of the governance industry is measured by distinctive types of data, we can speak of a mixed-method approach for the sake of completeness. This means that to bring together a more comprehensive account of the performance of the governance industry, I looked at quantitative and qualitative data (Bryman, 2012).
3.3.1 Twinning and the Governance Industry
Soft power is about perception, which is a relative and comparative concept (Nye, 2004, 2011). To determine the performance of the governance industry in a competitive environment I have looked at its success ratio in twinning. Twinning provides a competitive environment where soft power can play a great role; the beneficiary country influences who is eventually selected for a twinning project (European Commission, 2014; 31, 38). The soft power of the donor country in the eyes of the beneficiary can thus make a difference. This section outlines what twinning is and why it was chosen as a proxy for the governance industry’s performance.
The instrument of twinning was launched by the European Commission in 1998 to prepare for the enlargement of the European Union. Many candidate countries simultaneously required
assistance in adopting the acquis communautaire , and in strengthening their institutional capacity 7 in general to become part of the European Union. It is currently used as an instrument for institution building for pre-accession candidates (IPA) and for ENPI (European Neighbourhood and
Partnership Instrument) countries (European Commission, 2014). Twinning projects are guided by three fundamental principles:
• “It is a project of administrative co-operation in a specific field that must yield MANDATORY RESULTS” (European Commission, 2014; 12).
• “It is a close partnership in which the specific commitment of the beneficiary, who is also the driving force behind the changes targeted, is vital” (European Commission, 2014;12).
• “[It] strives to help introduce EU wide best practices in connection with EU legislation” European Commission, 2014; 12).
By working towards mandatory results, the European Commission seeks to ensure impact and results of projects, which must always be stated in the twinning contract precisely so they can be measured (European Commission, 2014).
In this research, twinning is used as a proxy for the performance of the governance industry. Here I outline why this is a good measurement. First, it is a competitive environment, where
countries compete for a project (B. Meijerman, personal communication, November 19, 2015; European Commission, 2014; 31, 38). As the beneficiary country may decide who ends up winning the project, the reputation of the donor country in the beneficiary country is important. This is thus a good test case for soft power, as this is about reputation and perception as well (Nye, 2004, 2011; Eggereide, 2012). Second, most of the organisations of the governance industry are active in the twinning exercise and have mandated body status, Chapter 4 discusses the governance industry. Third, twinning is about building institutional capacity abroad, which is similar to what the
The acquis communautaire is the body of EU treaties, legislation and norms, which need to be adopted by candidate
7
organisations in the governance industry are involved in. Fourth, performance is measured by comparing the amount of projects the organisations wrote a proposal for, to the amount of projects the organisations won. This demonstrates the relative performance of the organisations. 8
Other measurements were also considered. The World Bank and the IMF both have public tenders, where there is also a competitive environment between countries and reputation can make a difference. However, their databases solely list who has won a project, not who tendered for the project. It thus makes it difficult to determine a level of success. Other institution building
instruments of the European Union are TAIEX and SIGMA. With TAIEX (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange) the selection process for the donor country is based on a database of experts, where there is no public tender set out and the host country thus has very little influence, a
committee in the European Commission decides on the allocation of the experts (Petričević, 2013). SIGMA (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management) is a joint project between the European Commission and the OECD and the ones providing assistance are not member states but a team of reform experts (SigmaWeb, 2015).
A final reason for selecting twinning as a measurement, is data availability. Twinning is coordinated via the National Contact Points (NCP’s), which in the Netherlands is currently headed by B. Meijerman, also an interviewee in this study. The day-to-day processes of the relations between the organisations and the European Commission DG NEAR , are overseen by the 9
Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO - Rijksdienst Voor Ondernemend Nederland). The RVO has
A simple amount of projects carried out would be insufficient to test the industry’s success, because it would only
8
point towards the amount. If it were the case that the Netherlands has tendered for 1000 proposals and won 10, and I.e. Belgium tendered for 11 and won 10, Belgium could be considered more successful.
Since 2014 responsible for the twinning instrument. Before twinning was under DG DEVCO and DG Enlargement
9
been very willing to supply me with performance data in terms of twinning on the organisations of the governance industry. 10
In sum, twinning was selected as a proxy for the GI’s performance, because of its competitive environment among EU member state administrations, data availability and the influence of the beneficiary in making the final selection.
3.3.2 Interviews
The performance of the governance industry is also measured through conducted interviews. This was done because twinning is only a part of the organisations’ activities. The organisations indicated that twinning is quite labour intensive, and not necessarily the preferred manner of executing a project abroad (personal communication in Appendix D, Chapter 4). The interviews were conducted as well to gain more insight into the governance industry, which is looked at in Chapter 4.
Thirteen interviews were conducted, of which eleven within the governance industry and three key informants (one interview had two interviewees). The interviewees were selected by convenience sampling; all organisations were sent the same email with a request for an interview, and eleven replied positively. As the size of the governance industry for this research is 13
organisations, this gives a response rate of 84,6%. The selection of the organisations of the
governance industry is further specified in Chapter 4. The key informants were from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the role of NCP, and of the RVO, who deal with the use of the twinning
instrument.
This process relatively took a long time, because to formalise the process I had to submit an official request based on
10
the Dutch act on public access to government information: WOB, Wet Openbaarheid van Bestuur. This required the RVO to ask all the organisations, which I deemed part of the governance industry, whether they were allowed to give me the information I required. As not all organisations responded swiftly, it took over eight weeks to collect the data. For more information see: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/kwaliteit-en-integriteit-overheidsinstanties/vraag-en-antwoord/wat-is-de-wet-openbaarheid-van-bestuur-wob accessed on January 11, 2016.
