Semi-Structured Interviewing: Socio-Cultural Issues and Dutch Politicians

Abstract

From 2008 to 2012, I embarked on a dissertation project that examined how the rise of socio-cultural issues was impacting party system change in the Netherlands. To date, most of the studies of party system change have employed one of the following methods: the content analysis of party manifestos, expert surveys, broad opinion surveys of the electorate, and media analyses. Much of this literature has two shortcomings: (1) parties are treated as cohesive units, and (2) while the combination of policies put forth by a party is considered important, almost none consider how they are communicated to the voters. Both are important. I argue that in order to understand how socio-cultural issues are impacting party systems in Western Europe, one should not only be aware of how cohesive parties are vis-à-vis these issues but also how effective they are at communicating their party's views to the public. To get a read on how divided Dutch parties remained over these issues as of 2011, I employed semi-structured interviews. This case study provides an account of how these semi-structured interviews were arranged and gives some useful tips on how to conduct them.

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