S

Governance, Development, and the

Responsive-Repressive State in

Vietnam

Benedict J. Tria KerkvlietPresented by Hang Nguyen

Agenda

S Context

S Governance

S Development

S Democracy

S Responsiveness

S Repressiveness

S Debates among critics

Context

S Good governance: appropriate public policies,

authorities being accountable to the people and people

being able to influence policy-makers.

S Development: the improvement of citizens’ economic

and social welfare.

S Democracy: free and regular elections, a multiparty

political system, multiple branches of government

(legislative, executive and judicial), freedom of press and

speech, and robust civil society organisations.

Governance

S Communist Party:

S only authorised political party

S dominates national and local government offices, the

bureaucracy, the legal system and mass media

S Official ‘mass organisations’ for workers, peasants,

women and other sectors of society are closely tied to the

party and its government.

Development

S Citizens’ welfare has improved considerably.

S ‘Democratic institutions are not necessarily required for

improvement in people’s well-being, accountability of

authorities and citizens’ influence on policy-makers’.

S Relationship between governing authorities and citizens.

Responsiveness

S Vietnam’s political system:

S A top-down system dominated by a centralised CP-run state with

no room for societal influences and political activity, or

S An authoritarian system that is largely a CP-run state but allows

some citizen participation through its official ‘mass organisations’,

or

S A system with considerable dialogue and negotiation between

components of a somewhat decentralised state and various

interests in society, including those not in official organisations.

Responsiveness

S According to how citizens have conveyed their views and

concerns to authorities

S ‘Everyday politics’: Urban residents: housing

S ‘Public contests’: collective farming & redistribution of land

S May 1997: Protests in Thai Binh used limited force to restore

order.

S Workers’ strikes (unlawful): low wages or abusive treatment

government repression is rare

S ‘Lawful channels’: writing petition, letters of complaints,

meetings with officials, lobbying decision-makers… (VCCI)

Repressiveness

S Repression also conforms with the interpretation that Vietnam

has an authoritarian political system that allows citizen

participation but only through official, authorised organisations

S Most repression is against people who try to disrupt social

order, weaken national security, destabilise the political

system, undermine the government, or dislodge the

Communist Party from power.

S Methods: harassment, physical violence, arrest and/or

imprisonment.

Repressiveness

S February 2001: Central Highlands protest – conflicts over

land/Evangelical religious practices sent in military troops

and district security police units

S ‘Democracy movement’: public advocates for democratic

institutions and the protection of free speech and other human

rights

S Dozen political parties and other organisations (no legal standing)

S Newspapers, publications

S Bloc 8406: Declaration of Freedom and Democracy for Vietnam

harassment, intimidation, occasional arrests and

imprisonments

Debates among critics

S Responsive-repressive: non-violent, peaceful struggle

S Struggle through participation and engagement with authorities

and state institutions causes significant mutation and

conversion toward democracy over time.

S Struggle that directly confront authorities and institutions the

state as stubbornly opposed to significant change and highly

prone to repression

S The only way for governance in Vietnam to improve is to

replace the CP government with democracy

Debates among critics

S Struggles for better living conditions and other specific issues

influence the CP government and help the country to develop.

S Democratisation movement = restore the Saigon regime?

S Critics favouring confrontational struggle stress direct

opposition to the CP and its government little or nothing

worth saving of the present political system should be

‘completely replaced’; ‘incapable of being renovated or

modified’

S Development cannot happen until VN has democratic

institutions/multiple parties?

Thank you for your attention!