Present but not Powerful: Neoliberalism, the State, and Development in Vietnam

Abstract

Through a case study of Vietnam, this paper explores what happens to neoliberal ideas about development when they encounter the very different political and cultural context of a developing country. The paper argues that although much scholarship tends implicitly or explicitly to emphasise the very great power of neoliberal institutions in our world today, an analysis of continuity and change in Vietnam during two decades of extensive engagement with neoliberal actors suggests that the influence of neoliberalism on the working of the Vietnamese state has been relatively small. The paper seeks both to document and explain this through an account which is attentive to both structure and agency and which in turn sheds new light on the nature of power in our world.

En este artículo se explora qué sucede con las ideas neoliberales, cuando el desarrollo se enfrenta a contextos culturales y políticos muy diferentes en países en vías de desarrollo, con base en un estudio de caso en Vietnam. El documento argumenta que aunque la academia tiende a enfatizar de manera implícita o explícita el gran poder de las instituciones neoliberales en nuestro mundo actual, un análisis de continuidad y cambio en Vietnam durante dos décadas de compromiso extenso con los actores neoliberales, sugiere que la influencia del neoliberalismo en el estado vietnamita ha sido relativamente débil. Este artículo busca documentar y explicar a través de un análisis cuidadoso, tanto de la estructura como de las intervenciones de desarrollo, que a su vez resalta una nueva perspectiva sobre la naturaleza del poder en nuestro mundo.

Keywords:

• neoliberalism
• state
• development
• Vietnam
• reform

Acknowledgements

An early version of the paper was presented at the ‘Still the Asian Century?’ conference at the University of Birmingham, 10–12 September 2008. The author is grateful to Scott Cheshier, Andrew Wells-Dang, and three anonymous reviewers for their very useful comments on a draft of the paper produced following this conference. Responsibility for all remaining errors or omissions rests with the author.

Notes

The point I am making here is that at the level of discourse the emphasis is on reform as change. This is not to say that scholars do not offer caveats to the change discourse—they do—but the default position is always that Vietnam is undergoing a process of change. I believe this ‘default’ discourse, which is evident in nearly all scholarship on Vietnam is ultimately distorting of the record.

When I talk about the state in Vietnam, I am referring to what is often referred to as the Party-State (i.e. an agglomeration which includes both the Communist Party and the government). For background on Vietnamese politics, see Vasavakul (2001).

For examples of literature which falls into this category, see Duiker (1989) and Pike (1978).

Strikingly, this came across in an exhibition organised by the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi in 2006 on the state subsidy period where it was evident that access to superior foodstuffs, goods, and services for members of the elite was officially sanctioned.

Personal observations while working as a Senior Technical Advisor for UNDP (2005–2006) and later as a UNDP consultant (2008).

Ibid.

Ibid.

This is based on interviews I conducted in 2005 on intergovernmental fiscal relations in Hanoi and four provinces at the central provincial and district level. I also spoke informally with staff at the IMF's Hanoi office and international consultants working in this area.

Personal observations.