Governance and state–society relations in Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has given rise to dichotomous debates in international politics on whether authoritarian or democratic governance is more effective in responding to the pandemic. This study argues that the Vietnamese government, which is categorized as authoritarian, effectively managed the COVID-19 pandemic, at least until 2021, by utilizing vertical and horizontal political systems, networks, and social media platforms; increasing accountability and transparency through risk communication and providing scientifically credible information; and mobilizing organizations affiliated with the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and its diverse stakeholders. In the process, these social attempts have provided more room for citizens to participate in combating this pandemic that has resulted in a change in state–society relations. However, this change might not continue in reforming daily life.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 pandemic response
• authoritarianism
• democracy
• social networks

Acknowledgements

I thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Any errors that remain are my sole responsibility. Also, I thank the Japan International Cooperation Agency-Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development for technical assistance to collect related data and information. The views expressed in this paper are my own and do not reflect the views of the JICA.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ritchie et al. 2021.

2 Alon, Farrell, and Li 2020; Cooper and Aitchison 2020.

3 He, Chen, Kong, and Liu 2020.

4 Maerz et al. 2020.

5 Tung 2021; Sharma, Borah, and Moses 2021; Park and Chung 2021; Griffin et al. 2021; Chau et al. 2021.

6 Lee and Li 2021; Heydari et al. 2021; Harring, Jagers, and Lofgren 2021; Goldfinch, Taplin, and Gauld 2021.

7 Wilson 2020; Tourish 2020; Chau et al. 2021.

8 Loewenson et al. 2021.

9 Economic Intelligence Unit. In 2020, the Economic Intelligence UNIT ranked Vietnam 137th out of 168 countries on its democracy index. See EIU 2021.

10 At an August 3, 2020, press conference, representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) praised Vietnam’s response to the pandemic and urged other countries to refer to these measures. At the press conference, WHO Technical Team Leader Maria Van Kerkhove said, “Vietnam is acting quickly and comprehensively, and Vietnam has a system in place that can help control Covid19.” See Phong and Van 2020.

11 Tan-Torres Edejer et al. 2020; Djalante et al. 2020; Migone 2020; Capano et al. 2020.

12 Tran et al. 2020a; Nguyen et al. 2021.

13 Tung and Thanh 2020; Nguyen-Thu 2020; Van Nhu et al. 2020.

14 Van Nguyen et al. 2020; Tran et al. 2020b; Ha et al. 2020; Le Thu 2020; Van Nguyen, Cao, and Nghiem 2021.

15 Luong, Jardine, and Thomson 2020; Tran et al. 2020b.

16 Furuta 1996, 2000.

17 Furuta 2000, 179.

18 Cf. Kerkvliet 2019

19 Fforde and Homutova 2017; Hong 2016; Kerkvliet 2014.

20 Anh 2021; Vasavakul 2014.

21 Nguyen and Nguyen 2021; Nguyen 2016; Nguyen and Ho 2019; Nguyen 2019; Nakano 2012.

22 Kerkvliet 2019, 6.

23 Nguyen 2019.

24 SRV 2021.

25 Shiraisi 2000; Anh 2021.

26 The president is the official head of state and the prime minister is the head of government. Both positions are separate from the General Secretary of the CPV, who leads the party and is the head of the Politburo, the political bureau of the Central Committee of the CPV. Executive power is exercised by the government and the president, whereas legislative power is vested in the National Assembly of Vietnam. The judiciary is independent of the executive. See SRV 2021.

27 The 2013 Constitution stipulates that the Vietnam Fatherland Front includes political union organizations, voluntary associations of political organizations, socio-political organizations, social organizations, other organizations, and individuals of all classes and social strata, ethnic groups, religions, and Vietnamese residing abroad.

28 In the VFF and mass organizations, there are currently 86,395 permanent staff, accounting for 14.14% of the country’s total cadres, officials, and professional staff (Nguyen 2019).

29 Shiraisi 2000.

30 Chi 2021.

31 Kerkvliet 2001.

32 Kleine 2015.

33 Dang 2016; Tromme 2016; Nguyen et al. 2017; CECODES et al. 2021.

34 Ritchie et al. 2021. Vietnam has been hit by several waves of COVID-19. The first was from January 23 to March 5, 2020, and originated among residents of Vinh Phuc returning from Wuhan, China, with a total of sixteen cases. The second wave lasted from March 7 to April 22, 2020, during which 300 cases were identified among citizens who had visited Europe, the United States, and South Korea. The third wave occurred in Da Nang in July 2020, when more than 1,000 people were infected and thirty-five died.

35 Teo et al. 2019.

36 WHO 2020.

37 Vietnam’s government has developed a robust web-based system of collecting and aggregating data from public health entities in nearly real-time. Since 2016, hospitals are required to report notifiable diseases to a central database within twenty-four hours, ensuring that the Ministry of Health can track epidemiological developments across the country in real time. See Balajee et al. 2017; Pollack et al. 2020.

38 Hartley and Jarvis 2020.

39 Duong, Le, and Ha 2020.

40 La et al. 2020.

41 It includes detailed instructions, such as screening, admission and isolation of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, establishment of isolation areas in hospitals, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning and disinfecting environmental, waste management, the collection, preservation, packing and transport of patient samples, prevention of laboratory-acquired infections, handling of the remains of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, and COVID-19 prevention guidelines for family members and visitors. See Pollack et al. 2020.

42 Tran 2021.

43 The Prime Minister of Vietnam. Quyết định 170 về việc thành lập Ban chỉ đạo quốc gia phòng chống bệnh viêm đường hô hấp cấp do chủng mới corona vi rút gây ra [Decision No. 170/QD-TTg on establishing the National Steering Committee for the prevention and control of acute respiratory infections caused by a new strain of corona virus]. See: http://vanban.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/chinhphu/hethongvanban?clas s_id=2&_page=1&mode=detail&document_id=19896 3. The NSC included the following members: the Minister of Public Security, Minister of National Defense, President of the VFF Central Committee, Head of the Party Central Committee’s Mass Mobilization Commission, Head of the Party Central Committee’s Propagation and Education Commission, Minister of Health, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Budget and Finance Committee, Minister-Chairman of the Government Office, Minister of Justice, and Minister of Information and Communication.

44 Tran et al. 2021.

45 Tran 2020.

46 “PM Phuc affirms nCoV fight is top priority,” February 2, 2020. (http://news.chinhphu.vn/Home/PMr-Phuc-affirms-nCoV-fight-is-top-priority/20202/38671.vgp).

47 Le Thu 2020.

48 VGP 2020.

49 Nguyen et al. 2021.

50 See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGoodWEtV8c.

51 Caitlin 2020.

52 Diep and Dang 2020.

53 WHO 2020.

54 Nguyen et al. 2021.

55 Nguyen and Ho 2020, 8–9.

56 Phong and Van 2020.

57 Quach et al. 2021.

58 Dung 2020, Phương 2020.

59 Chanley, Rudolph, and Rahn 2000; Bouckaert and van de Walle 2016; OECD 2017.

60 Do 2021.

61 Television (eighty-eight percent), phone messages (seventy-one percent), social media (fifty-three percent), the Internet (forty-seven percent), and personal contact (forty-three percent).

62 Wearing masks (ninety-nine percent), washing hands daily (ninety-three percent), social distancing (eighty-nine percent), and using hand sanitizer (eighty-two percent).

63 CECODES et al. 2021.

64 DeVeaux and Dölitzsch 2020.

65 JICA 2021.

66 Nakano 2012, Kerkvliet, 2014.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Miyoko Taniguchi

Miyoko Taniguchi is a professor in the International Political Economy Department of the Faculty of Humanities at Miyazaki University, Japan.