Politics in Contemporary Vietnam

Abstract

Vietnam’spolitical development has entered an extraordinary, if indeterminate, phase. Politics in Vietnam, long a predictable affair, are today characterized by a sense of uncertainty and possibility that has no precedent in the country’spostwar history. Changes are apparent on a variety of levels. At the pinnacle of state power, competition among elite members of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has produced no clear victor, lending to a sense of acute political gridlock. The degree of dissensus was laid bare in October of 2012, when the entire Politburo was subjected to unprecedented criticism by the Party Central Committee. It was evident again in early 2013, when Vietnam saw a bitter and uncharacteristically public proxy struggle for control over the party Politburo. Nor have evolutionary processes been limited to the sphere of elite politics. Recent changes in Vietnam’spolitical culture are a case in point. Unfiltered political speech and contentious politics, only recently a rarity in Vietnam, have swiftly become commonplace. While the art of political commentary, dormant for decades, has seen a spirited revival. Underlying all of these political developments is a set of tensions and contradictions within Vietnam’spolitical economy itself. While the country’seconomy retains considerable potential, two decades of rapid economic growth has given way to a flagging economic performance.