Downloaded from https://www.83, on 11 Feb 2019 at 15:32:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.org/core/terms.1017/9781108608312 Tai Lieu Chat Luong Downloaded from https://www.83, on 11 Feb 2019 at 15:32:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.org/core/terms.1017/9781108608312 Elements in Politics and Society in Southeast Asia edited by Edward Aspinall Australian National University Meredith L. Weiss University at Albany, SUNY VIETNAM A Pathway from State Socialism Thaveeporn Vasavakul Governance Support Facility Initiatives Downloaded from https://www.83, on 11 Feb 2019 at 15:32:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.org/core/terms.1017/9781108608312 University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06–04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.org Information on this title: www.1017/9781108608312 © Thaveeporn Vasavakul 2019 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2019 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-108-45907-5 Paperback ISSN 2515-2998 (online) ISSN 2515-298X (print) Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Downloaded from https://www.83, on 11 Feb 2019 at 15:32:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.org/core/terms.1017/9781108608312 Vietnam A Pathway from State Socialism Elements in Politics and Society in Southeast Asia DOI: 10.1017/9781108608312 First published online: February 2019 Thaveeporn Vasavakul Governance Support Facility Initiatives Author for correspondence: t_vasavakul@gosfi.org Abstract: This is a study of Vietnam’s socialist transition and state transformation, generally known as đổi mới. It examines the drivers of socialist-regime change, the nature of the đổi mới state, and the basis of regime legitimacy in Vietnam.
The Element argues that despite its “one-party rule” label, the party-state apparatus that channels said rule has become fragmented. State-building during the đổi mới period has involved negotiations and bargaining that redefine authority and power relations within the state apparatus. The party-state’s accountability projects are designed to target the specific self-aggrandizing tendencies of the state apparatus, its policies, and the abuse of state power. At the leadership level, the patterns of resource allocation underlying the đổi mới growth model as well as the VCP’s cadre rotation approach have accommodated central and sub-national state elites across sectors and levels, helping shore up the legitimacy of the đổi mới state in the eyes of the state elite.
The combined factors of sustained economic growth, expansion of political space, accountability, and tolerance of small-scale public protests have been key in strengthening regime–society legitimization. Keywords: Vietnam (Viet Nam), state socialism, doi moi (đổi mới), transition, state-building, state transformation, accountability, legitimacy © Thaveeporn Vasavakul 2019 ISBNs: 9781108459075 (PB), 9781108608312 (OC) ISSNs: 2515-2998 (online), 2515-298X (print) Downloaded from https://www.83, on 11 Feb 2019 at 15:32:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.org/core/terms.1017/9781108608312 Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 From State Socialism to Transition 4 3 State-Building 18 4 Accountability of the Đổi Mới State 45 5 Regime Change and Legitimacy from a Comparative Perspective 62 References 68 Downloaded from https://www.83, on 11 Feb 2019 at 15:32:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.org/core/terms.1017/9781108608312 Politics and Society in Southeast Asia 1 1 Introduction Đổi mới is Vietnam’s1 revolution from state socialism. Literally translated as “change,” đổi mới was officially endorsed at the Sixth National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) in December 1986. The Congress high- lighted an urgent need for changes in thinking (đổi mới tư duy) and leadership style (đổi mới phong cách lãnh đạo).
It endorsed the rethinking of the notion of “socialist transition” (thời kỳ quá độ lên chủ nghĩa xã hội), reviewing persistent bureaucratic bottlenecks, reducing stagnation and waste, placing practical reliance on the people, and measuring success through results (Đặng Phong, 2009b; 287–385). Official documents indicate that đổi mới is still ongoing (Đinh Thế Huynh et al. That Vietnam’s transition from state socialism has brought about positive economic and political results is undeniable. In the decade prior to 1998, Vietnam performed comparatively better than all other socialist transition economies except for China, reducing its total number of poverty cases by half (Van Arkadie & Mallon, 2003: 6).
Measured in current US dollars, Vietnam doubled its per capita GDP from $413 in 2001 to $836 in 2007, and passed the $1,000 milestone of a middle-income country ahead of the target date set for it by the Socio-Economic Development Plan of 2006–2010 (World Bank, 2008: 3–4). Since 1986, Vietnam has embarked on regional and inter- national integration: it became the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ seventh member in 1995 and re-established diplomatic relations with the United States, implemented a US–Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement in 2001, and joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007. Politically, Vietnam’s one-party state has remained relatively stable throughout đổi mới. The VCP has confronted neither a major political challenge from within nor large-scale popular resistance like China’s in 1989.
That đổi mới has yielded considerable economic and political success is no exaggeration. However, from a state-building perspective đổi mới has been inhibited by state ineffectiveness, bureaucratic corruption, and periodic public protest. The state apparatus has been ineffectual at formulating and implementing coherent policy, while state officials have indiscriminately used state offices for private gain. Small-scale protests have erupted in objection to land management, industrial labor relations, plunder of natural resources, environmental degrada- tion, and Vietnam–China foreign and economic relations.
Individual protests against the đổi mới state have also emerged. In 2017, a petitioner at the Office of the Central Complaint Handlings reportedly assaulted an official over the Office’s inaction. Similarly in 2018, another citizen, barred from 1 For consistency, the spelling Vietnam has been used in this Element rather than Viet Nam. Downloaded from https://www.83, on 11 Feb 2019 at 15:32:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.org/core/terms.1017/9781108608312 2 Vietnam: A Pathway from State Socialism voicing grievances during a meet-the-public session, hurled a shoe at the Chair of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council.
Overall, though Vietnam has succeeded in transitioning away from a centrally planned economic system, its success in building a post–central-planning state has not kept pace with emerging governance challenges. Indeed, records on Vietnam’s state-building efforts reveal some peculiar phenomena. In the 1990s Vietnamese newspapers coined the adage “the emperor’s edicts stop at the provincial gate” (phép vua thua lệ tỉnh) to highlight dysfunction within state hierarchies. Such dysfunction continued under Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải (1997–2006), who at one point lamented that even he did not have the power to appoint or dismiss ministers.
Similarly, Vietnamese citizens deprecated public administration with the quip that “public adminis- tration is public misadministration” (hành chính chính là hành dân).2 Recently, as the state arena itself has degenerated into a vast marketplace for corruption, the pejorative term “interest groups” (nhóm lợi ích) has been used for coalitions of vested interests with influential backing within the state structure. Such dispersal of state power and seeming breakdown of the state apparatus are especially peculiar given that Vietnam’s one-party state under the leadership of the VCP is so frequently described as “authoritarian.” This Element examines the state’s transformation during Vietnam’s shift away from state socialism, specifically the transition’s drivers and their impact on the socialist state, and the emergent đổi mới state’s nature, accountability, and legitimacy. Focusing on the interrelationship between drivers and the nature of the state will enhance an understanding of the process of regime change and the political economy of change. Tracing accountability and legiti- macy will shed light both on evolving state and societal relations and on conditions for political and ideological mobilization.
There are good reasons to focus on the state in Vietnam. Existing studies of đổi mới rarely maintain a systematic focus on the Vietnamese state, and when they do, the term “state” alternately indicates an institutional structure, an arena of contention, a set of interest group relations, and various components of government (Kerkvliet, 2001; Kerkvliet & Marr, 2004; Koh, 2006; Gainsborough, 2010; Thayer, 1994 and 2014). The lack of a consistent focus and definition is curious given that the notion “state” (nhà nước) is not new in Vietnam’s political writings but has been used in such stock terms as “state apparatus” (bộ máy nhà nước), “state management” (quản lý nhà nước), and “state management agencies” (cơ quan quản lý nhà nước). Additionally, 2 These observations are drawn from local newspapers; Tuổi Trẻ, Thanh Niên, Lao Động, Đại Đoàn Kết, and Tiền Phong, which in the 1990s were considered progressive.
Downloaded from https://www.83, on 11 Feb 2019 at 15:32:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.org/core/terms.1017/9781108608312 Politics and Society in Southeast Asia 3 regardless of the particular definition, practical concerns have also emerged over the effectiveness of the Vietnamese state. A series of studies from the Fulbright Economics Program based in Ho Chi Minh City, for example, attributes the ineffectiveness of the Vietnamese state to fragmentation and weak accountability (Vietnam Executive Leadership Program, 2012, 2013, and 2015). Adam Fforde and Lada Homutova (2017), in turn, highlight ineffi- ciency in formal political institutions of Soviet origin, institutions through which the VCP still rules, as a factor hampering state effectiveness. Bringing a focus on the state back into an analysis of Vietnam’s path from state socialism, this Element looks at the state as a set of organizations with specific regulative, extractive, repressive, and ideological functions in varying relation with non-state actors.
This definition is predicated on the assumption that states express the combined domination of classes and fractions of classes over the rest of their society at particular points in time although no state is reducible to domination by such actors (Therborn, 1978; Anderson, 1983). Unpacking the transformation of Vietnam’s socialist state under đổi mới, I examine three interrelated processes: transition from plan to market, state- building, and evolving accountability and legitimacy. In tracking the transition from plan to market, I identify key state socialist structures that developed prior to đổi mới as well as drivers for change and the change process. In discussing state-building, I examine the impact of transition on the structure of the state apparatus and its power, the redefinition of authority relations within the state structure, and the political economy of state policy.
I situate the discussion of accountability within the context of the VCP and various government responses to emerging legitimacy challenges to the one-party state. I argue that despite the label “one-party rule,” the party-state apparatus that channels that rule has become fragmented thirty years after the launch of đổi mới. This fragmentation is a legacy of thriving commercialized interests at the provincial level during Vietnam’s transition from plan to market in the 1980s. While provincial “fence-breaking” practices propelled a successful economic transition, they had the systemic effect of undermining the power of the central state.
State-building that has followed has required negotiating to redefine authority relations within the state structure. The balancing of commercialized interests within the state apparatus has led to the institutionalization of a decentralized state apparatus. Vietnam’s accountability projects have reflected attempts on the part of the VCP, successive governments, and even citizens to curb the specific self-aggrandizing tendencies of state agencies, state policies, and the use of state power in the context of decentralization and fragmentation. Economic success and political stability under the one-party state in the era of Downloaded from https://www.