The development of civil society and dynamics of governance in Vietnam's one party rule

Abstract

Civil society has been in operation under one-party rule in Vietnam in the years since the Doi Moi (renewal) in 1986. Despite the continued monopoly of political power by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), civil society has been gradually expanded and developed. The paper reviews recent arguments in the political science and area studies literature on the emergence of civil society in Vietnam's Doi Moi period over the past two decades, to comment on the dynamics of the relationship between civil society and the party-state, problematizing the development of civil society in the context of a one-party-dominated state. At a certain level, civil society has been ‘tolerated’, ‘endorsed’, or recognized by the party state to fill a gap in the governance network. In practice, it has never been an easy project for civil society to make its way into Vietnamese society given the party-state's Gramscian concession to maintain the existing hegemony.

Keywords:

• civil society
• Communist Party of Vietnam
• governance
• party-state
• Gramscian concession

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Melissa Curley (UQ), Prof. Roland Bleiker (UQ), Prof. Benedict Kerkvliet (ANU), Dr. Kim Huynh (ANU), anonymous reviewers, the Journal editors and the Special Issue editors for their helpful comments.

Notes

1 In a socialist system, mass organizations are Leninist institutions which ‘serve as mobilizational instruments of the authorities by transmitting official policies and laws to society’. Jonathan R. Stromseth, ‘Business Associations and Policy-Making in Vietnam’, in Getting Organised in Vietnam: Moving in and around the Socialist State, ed. Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, Russell Hiang-Khng Heng and David Koh (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003), 63.

2 Larry Diamond, ‘Rethinking Civil Society: Towards Democratic Consolidation’, Journal of Democracy 5, no. 3 (1994): 228.

3 Philip Oxhorn, ‘From Controlled Inclusion to Coerced Marginalization: The Struggle for Civil Society in Latin America’, in Civil Society: Theory, History and Comparison, ed. John A. Hall (London: Polity Press, 1995), 251–2.

4 Ingrid Landau, ‘Law and Civil Society in Cambodia and Vietnam: A Gramscian Perspective’, Journal of Contemporary Asia 38, no. 2 (2008): 244.

5 Robert D. Putnam, ‘Bowing Alone: America's Declining Social Capital’, Journal of Democracy 6, no. 1 (1995): 65–78.

6 Ibid., 169.

7 Jude Howell and Jenny Pearce, Civil Society and Development: A Critical Exploration (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001), 39.

8 Ibid., 72.

9 They include, but are not limited to, the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the European Union (EU), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom Government, and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

10 Howell and Pearce, Civil Society and Development, 4.

11 Trần Ngọc Hiên, ‘Kinh tế thị trường định hướng xã hội chủ nghĩa với nhà nước pháp quyền và xã hội dân sự nước ta’ [Socialist-oriented market economy, the law-based state, and civil society in our country], Tạp chí Cộng sản [Communist review] 787 (May 2008): 50–5.

12 Christopher Heurlin, ‘Governing Civil Society: The Political Logic of NGO–State Relations Under Dictatorship’, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 21, no. 2 (2009): 222–4.

13 Lữ Phương, ‘Xã hội công dân: Từ triệt tiêu đến phục hồi’ [Civil society: from annulment to restoration] (Unpublished paper, Vietnam Update Conference, Dept. Political and Social Change, RSAPS, ANU, Canberra, 1994); John Gillespie, ‘Localizing Global Rules: Public Participation in Lawmaking in Vietnam’, Law & Social Inquiry 33, no. 3 (2008).

14 Tran Trung Chinh, ‘To chuc xa hoi dan su – Mot di san cua Viet Nam’ [Civil society actors – a legacy of Vietnam], Viet-studies, February 9, 2012, http://www.viet-studies.info/kinhte/TranTrungChinh_XaHoiDansu.htm (accessed June 17, 2012).

15 Kim N.B. Ninh, A World Transformed: The Politics of Culture in Revolutionary Vietnam, 1945–1965 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002); Heinz Schütte, Fünfzig Jahre Danach: Hundert Blumen in Vietnam 1954–1960 (Hamburg: Hamburger Südostasienstudien, Band 3, 2009).

16 Zachary Abuza, Renovating Politics in Contemporary Vietnam (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001), 42.

17 Ibid., 155.

18 Ibid., 162.

19 Carlyle Thayer, ‘Political Reform in Vietnam: Doi Moi and the Emergence of Civil Society’, in The Developments of Civil Society in Communist Systems, ed. Robert F. Miller (North Sydney, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1992); Mark Sidel, ‘The Emergence of a Voluntary Sector and Philanthropy in Vietnam: Functions, Legal Regulation and Prospects for the Future’, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 8, no. 3 (1997); Michael L. Gray, ‘Creating Civil Society? The Emergence of NGOs in Vietnam’, Development and Change 30, no. 4 (1999).

20 Carlyle Thayer, ‘Mono-Organizational Socialism and the State’, in Vietnam's Rural Transformation, ed. Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet and Dough J. Porter (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1995), 52.

21 Gray, ‘Creating Civil Society?’

22 Joseph Hannah, ‘Local Non-Government Organizations in Vietnam: Development, Civil Society and State-Society Relations’ (PhD diss., University of Washington, Seattle, 2007).

23 The Law on Association was withdrawn from Vietnamese political and legal agenda in 2008 after 13 drafts had been produced and debated.

24 Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, ‘An Approach for Analysing State–Society Relations in Vietnam’, SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 16, no. 2 (2001).

25 Heurlin, ‘Governing Civil Society’.

26 Tony Saich,‘Negotiating the State: The Development of Social Organizations in China’, The China Quarterly 161 (March 2000): 125.

27 Ibid.; Kerkvliet, ‘Analysing State–Society Relations.’

28 Russell Hiang-Khng Heng, ‘Media Negotiating the State: In the Name of the Law in Anticipation’, SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 16, no. 2 (2001); David Koh, Wards of Hanoi (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2006).

29 Meredith L. Weiss, ‘Civil Society and Social Capital in Southeast Asia’, in International Encyclopedia of Civil Society, ed. Helmut K. Anheier and Stefan Toepler (New York: Springer, 2010), 296.

30 Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, ‘Introduction: Grappling with Organizations and the State in Contemporary Vietnam’, in Kerkvliet, ed., Getting Organised in Vietnam, 15.

31 Ibid., 16.

32 Muthiah Alagappa, ed., Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004).

33 Meredith L. Weiss, ‘Civil Society and Close Approximations Thereof’, in Southeast Asia in Political Science, ed. Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater and Tuong Vu (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008), 145.

34 Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, ‘Politics of Society in the Mid 1990s’, in Dilemmas of Development: Vietnam Update 1994, ed. Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet (Canberra: Dept. Political and Social Change, RSPAS, ANU, 1995), 41.

35 Howell and Pearce, Civil Society and Development; Alagappa, Civil Society and Political Change; and Lee Hock Guan, ed., Civil Society in Southeast Asia (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2004).

36 Fahimul Quadir and Jayant Lele, eds., Democracy and Civil Society in Asia (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 8.

37 Landau, ‘Law and Civil Society’; P. Ramasamy, ‘Civil Society in Malaysia: An Arena of Contestations?’, in Guan, ed., Civil Society in Southeast Asia.

38 Roger Simon, Gramsci's Political Thought: An Introduction (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1982), 71.

39 Ramasamy, ‘Civil Society in Malaysia’, 206.

40 Hagai Katz, ‘Gramsci, Hegemony, and Global Civil Society Networks’, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 17, no. 4 (2006): 336.

41 Ibid.

42 Landau, ‘Law and Civil Society’, 245.

43 Ramasamy, ‘Civil Society in Malaysia’, 202–3.

44 Simon, Gramsci's Political Thought, 26.

45 Quadir and Lele, Democracy and Civil Society in Asia, 10.

46 Howell and Pearce, Civil Society and Development, 34.

47 Simon, Gramsci's Political Thought, 27.

48 Ramasamy, ‘Civil Society in Malaysia’, 206.

49 Guan, Civil Society in Southeast Asia, 4.

50 Hannah, ‘Local Non-Government Organizations’.

51 Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, Nguyễn Quang A, and Bạch Tân Sinh, Forms of Engagement between State Agencies and Civil Society Organisations in Vietnam (Hanoi: VUFO-NGO Resource Centre, 2008).

52 Irene Nørlund, ‘Civil Society in Vietnam: Social Organisations and Approaches to New Concepts’, The German Journal on Contemporary Asia 105 (2007): 68–90.

53 Mark Sidel, Law and Society in Vietnam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

54 Carlyle Thayer, ‘Vietnam and the Challenge of Political Civil Society’, Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs 31, no. 1 (2009).

55 Andrew Wells-Dang, ‘Informal Pathbreakers: Civil Society Networks in China and Vietnam’ (PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 2011).

56 Jörg Wischermann, ‘Governance and Civil Society Action in Vietnam: Changing the Rules from within – Potentials and Limits’, Asian Politics & Policy 3, no. 3 (2011): 383.

57 Russell Hiang-Khng Heng, ‘Civil Society Effectiveness and the Vietnamese State – Despite or Because of the Lack of Autonomy’, in Guan, ed., Civil Society in Southeast Asia, 145.

58 Caroline M. Cooper, ‘This is Our Way in: The Civil Society of Environmental NGOs in South-West China’, Government and Opposition 41, no. 1 (2006): 115.

59 Wischermann, ‘Governance and Civil Society Action’; Hannah, ‘Local Non-Government Organizations’; and Wells-Dang, ‘Informal Pathbreaker’.

60 Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, Anita Chan and Jonathan Unger, eds., Transforming Asian Socialism: China and Vietnam Compared (Canberra: Dept. of International Relations, RSPAS, ANU, 1999), 12.

61 Garry Rodan, ‘Civil Society and Other Political Possibilities in Southeast Asia’, Journal of Contemporary Asia 27, no. 2 (1997): 158.

62 The term ‘transmission belts’ was used by Lenin to refer to mass organizations as two-way conduits between the party-state and the assigned constituency of each organization. Stromseth, ‘Business Associations and Policy-Making’, 99–100. For a further detailed discussion on how mass organizations/transmission belts function, see Janos Kornai, The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 39–40.

63 Thayer, ‘Challenge of Political Civil Society’, 18–19; Hannah, ‘Local Non-Governmental Organizations’, 93.

64 The policy is labelled by the Vietnamese party-state as ‘socialization’, which basically means shifting costs from the state onto society and permitting non-state service providers and participants. Jonathan London, ‘Rethinking Vietnam's Mass Education and Health Systems’, in Rethinking Vietnam, ed. Duncan McCargo (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), 132. For environmental governance, the state aims at creating incentives and preferential policies for intensifying ‘socialization’, according to the 11th CPV National Congress Resolution issued in January 2011.

65 See Le Quy An, ‘Ban ve xa hoi hoa cong tac bao ve moi truong’ [Discussing socialization of environmental protection], Nhan dan, June 5, 1998; Resolution 41-NQ/TW issued by CPV Politburo on November 15, 2004 on environmental protection in the period of accelerated industrialization and modernization; Directive 29-CT/TW issued by CPV Secretariat on January 21, 2009; National Strategy for Environmental Protection approved by the Prime Minister in 2003 and 2012.

66 The party-state has begun to recognize the greater role of non-state actors, particularly social organizations, NGOs, community-based organizations (CBOs) which operate outside the parameters of mass organizations in providing critical feedback and knowledge, particularly with regard to environmental impact assessment. See Hoang Van Nghia, ‘Vai tro va hoat dong cua cac to chuc xa hoi trong viec bao ve, giam sat moi truong’ [The role and activity of social organizations in environmental protection and monitoring], Nghien cuu lap phap [Journal of legislative studies] 203 (September 2011).

67 Peter Ho, ‘Embedded Activism and Political Change in a Semiauthoritarian Context’, China Information 21, no. 2 (2007): 197.

68 Guabin Yang and Craig Calhoun ‘Media, Civil Society, and the Rise of a Green Public Sphere in China’, China Information 21, no. 2 (2007): 211.

69 More than 50 (e-)newspapers frequently reported and commented on the Vong Canh Hill case throughout 2004–5. For background information, see ‘Song Huong yeu ot’ [Feable Huong river], Nhan dan, March 10, 2006; ‘Du an du lich Vong Canh ‘deo cay giua duong’ [Vong Canh Hill Project in an awkward situation], Vnexpress, February 18, 2005, http://vnexpress.net/gl/xa-hoi/2005/02/3b9db7e3/ (accessed June 17, 2012).

70 See Wells-Dang, ‘Informal Pathbreakers’, 195–237.

71 Andrew Wells-Dang, ‘Political Space in Vietnam: a View from the “Rice-Roots”’, The Pacific Review 23, no. 1 (2010): 98.

72 Prof. Nguyen Hue Chi, Prof. Nguyen The Hung, and Pham Toan initiated a political blog (Boxit Viet Nam) to gain wider public support for the protest movement. General Vo Nguyen Giap gave the movement a strong impetus by sending three open letters to party-state leaders protesting against bauxite mining. See Carlyle Thayer, ‘Political Legitimacy of Vietnam's One-Party State: Challenges and Responses’, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 28, no. 4 (2009): 49–52; Andrew Wells-Dang, ‘Framing the Environment: Competing and Complementary Visions in State and Society’ (paper presented at the Vietnam Update Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, November 17–18, 2011).

73 For background information on the case, see David Brown, ‘Green on Red: Searching for “Suitable Solutions” to Vietnam's Environmental Crisis’ (paper presented at the Vietnam Update Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, November 17–18, 2011); and Bui Hai Thiem, ‘Civil Society and Environmental Policy in Vietnam: A New Source of Governance?’ (paper presented at the Vietnam Update Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, November 17–18, 2011).

74 The Vedan case dominated the front page of many Vietnamese newspapers, like Thanh nien, Tuoi tre, Sai Gon Giai phong, Thoi bao Kinh te, Vietnamnet. See Brown, ‘Green on Red’, 5–10.

75 Vedan accepted direct negotiations with farmers, resulting in a payment of VND217 billion (US$10.85 million) for all compensation claims from farmers. See Bui Hai Thiem, ‘Civil Society and Environmental Policy’, 10.

76 John Gillespie, ‘Changing Concepts of Socialist Law in Vietnam’, in Asian Socialism and Legal Change: The Dynamics of Chinese and Vietnamese Reforms, ed. John Gillespie and Pip Nicholson (Canberra: ANU E Press and Asia Pacific Press, 2005), 7.

77 Sidel, Law and Society; Mark Sidel, The Constitution of Vietnam: A Contextual Analysis (Portland, OR: Hart, 2009).

78 Vietnam received US$196 billion in FDI registration and US$64.32 billion in ODA commitments between 1993 and 2010 at a steady rate (Statistics released by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in 2010, Summary Report 7501/BC-BKHDT by Ministry of Planning and Investment on November 1, 2011 on ODA Attraction and Use). By 2011, Vietnam's foreign loans amount to US$50 billion, equivalent to 41.5% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at an average of 15% year-on-year increase. Ngo Thi Tuyet Mai, ‘No nuoc ngoai cua Viet Nam: Nhung van de dang quan ngai’ [Vietnam's foreign loans and concerns], Tap chi kinh te va du bao 12 (2012).

79 Barrett L. McCormick, ‘Political Change in China and Vietnam: Coping with the Consequences of Economic Reform’, in Kerkvliet, Chan and Unger, eds., Transforming Asian Socialism, 162.

80 Sidel, The Constitution of Vietnam, 88.

81 Gillespie and Nicholson, eds., Asian Socialism and Legal Change, 6.

82 Sidel, Law and Society, 29.

83 Nguyen Si Dung, ‘Hoc o Hien phap nam 1946’ [Learning lessons from the 1946 Constitution], Tia Sang online, September 16, 2011, http://tiasang.com.vn/Default.aspx?tabid=116&CategoryID=42&News=4377 (accessed June 17, 2012).

84 Le Nhung, ‘Phat hien gan 4000 van ban trai luat’ [Uncovering nearly 4000 documents issued by authorities against the law], Vietnamnet, January 6, 2012, http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/chinh-tri/56016/phat-hien-gan-4-000-van-ban-trai-phap-luat.html (accessed May 15, 2012).

85 Anthony Langlois, ‘Human Rights’, in An Introduction to International Relations, ed. Richard Devetak, Anthony Burke and Jim George (Port Melbourne, VIC: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 441.

86 Carlyle Thayer, ‘The Tyranny of Geography: Vietnamese Strategies to Constrain China in the South China Sea’, Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs 33, 2011, no.3.

87 Alexander L. Vuving, ‘Vietnam: Tale of Four Players’, Southeast Asian Affairs (2010): 384.

88 Spontaneous demonstrations took place on December 9 and 12, 2007 in response to a declaration by the Chinese government that Sansha would be an administrative unit for Xisha (Paracel) islands, Zhongsha (Macclesfield Bank), and Nansha (Spratly) islands and their surrounding waters. See Carlyle Thayer, ‘Vietnam Public Protest in the Past and Today’ (Background Briefing, Thayer Consultancy, July 26, 2012).

89 See Thanh Nam, ‘Nguong tam ly va bieu tinh lan thu muoi mot’ [Psychological threshold and the eleventh demonstration], Blog Que choa, August 20, 2011, http://quechoa.vn/ (accessed November 22, 2012).

90 Esmer Golluoglu, ‘Protests in Vietnam as Anger over China's “Bullying” Grows’, The Guardian, August 6, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/06/protests-vietnam-china-bullying-grows (accessed November 20, 2012).

91 Quoc Phuong, ‘Nhin lai phong trao bieu tinh he 2011’ [Looking back at the 2011 summer demonstrations], BBC Vietnamese, September 4, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/2011/09/110903_viet_summer_protest_analysis.shtml (accessed November 20, 2012).

92 Hanoi authorities issued a notice on August 18, 2011, ordering an end to spontaneous demonstrations and Hanoi Television broadcast a report on August 21, 2011 denouncing demonstrators. Some other state-owned newspapers like Nhan dan, Quan doi nhan dan, Hanoimoi, An ninh Thu do carried various commentaries in the same vein. See ‘Ky yeu Bieu tinh’ [Demonstrations record], https://vietsuky.wordpress.com/ky-yeu-bieu-tinh/ (accessed November 22, 2012).

93 Le Hai, ‘Anti-Chinese Demonstrations in Vietnam Looking from a Hyphen Crisis’, The Global Viet, July 21, 2011, http://blogs.bauer.uh.edu/vietDiaspora/guest-posts/anti-chinese-demonstrations-in-vietnam-looking-from-the-hyphen-crisis/ (accessed November 22, 2012).

94 David Brown, ‘Vietnam's Not-So-Rare Protests’, Asia Sentinel, July 30, 2012, http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?Itemid=213&id=4720&option=com_content&task=view (accessed November 20, 2012).

95 Nguyen Minh Phong, ‘Khong ai duoc loi dung long yeu nuoc’ [No one shall abuse patriotism], Nhan dan online, July 24, 2012, http://www.nhandan.com.vn/cmlink/nhandandientu/thoisu/chinh-tri/binh-luan-phe-phan/khong-ai-c-l-i-d-ng-long-yeu-n-c-1.359359 (accessed November 22, 2012); Hoang Thu Van. ‘Suc manh cua long yeu nuoc chan chinh’ [Strength of authentic patriotism], Hanoimoi online, July 16, 2012, http://hanoimoi.com.vn/Tin-tuc/Suy-ngam/553320/suc-manh-cua-long-yeu-nuoc-chan-chinh (accessed November 22, 2012).