Democratization in Vietnam’s Post-Đổi Mới One-Party Rule: Change from Within, Change from the Bottom to the Top, and Possibilities

Abstract

Amid the collapse of authoritarian regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the stormy third wave of democratization that swept across the world (Huntington 1991a, b) and inspired Francis Fukuyama to write The End of History (Fukuyama 1989), Vietnam, under the rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), diverged spectacularly by introducing what has become known as the Đổi Mới (renewal) Program (CPV 1986). The CPV boasted that reforms were all-embracing and executed in all fields, from the economic and political to the cultural and social. Nevertheless, it also acknowledged that emphasis would be placed on economic reform (CPV 2005). Consequently, many analysts have questioned the sincerity of the CPV’s reforms (Hải 2016). Skepticism has been further provoked by four additional factors. First, the CPV does not accept private or independent media (CPV 2006; PM 2006). Second, popular demonstrations in all forms and for any reasons, including those mobilized to protest against China’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea (or East Sea in Vietnamese), have been disrupted by the authorities in the name of security and social order. Third, independent civil society is not yet functioning to provide critiques of public policy or the state (Abuza 2015). Fourth, the CPV’s dominant role as the single party ruling the country, without free and fair elections or a Western parliamentary model, remains enshrined in the constitution (Lockhart 2007). Based on these four characteristics, most analysts of Vietnamese politics have concluded without hesitation that the country is a typical undemocratic one-party authoritarian regime. The discourse on Vietnamese politics is also influenced by the assumption that the nation is carrying out economic liberalization without democratization (Li 2012). However, this assertion contradicts the views of Vietnamese scholars and theoreticians, who have boasted that Vietnamese citizens do in fact enjoy freedoms and democratic rights. In addition, the communist government has also claimed that the nature of the state has been democratic ever since it was established 70 years ago. These contradictory narratives about the nature of Vietnamese politics abound.