In this second diary of my series on my trip to Vietnam, I discuss what I learned about Vietnam's government. In particular, I discuss the structure of government, what influences it and what lessons we can learn from it. I do not pretend to fully understand Vietnam's government as so much of it is based in culture that I don't think I will ever fully understand even if I spent years there. Still, consider this at least one American's viewpoint on this country.
The first diary I posted on my trip to Vietnam is here: Climate Change and Vietnam: An Instructive Example
Basic Structure of Vietnam's Government:
Much like the US, Vietnam has three separate and in theory co-equal branches of government. They are the People's Council, the Legislative branch, the People's Committee, the Executive branch and the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the Political branch. Each of these three branches follows a strict top-down hierarchical model, with five main layers: National, Province, District (or town), Ward/Commune and Group/Village. Each layer directly reports to the level above it. Much of the power actually rests not in the national government, but in the provincial governments. Not surprisingly, the CPV, the political branch, dominates this structure as all leaders must be CPV members (about 2-2.5% of Vietnam's 87 million residents are members) and the political branch appoints the People's Committees, which then appoint the People's Councils for a particular level.
See this chart for a simplified view of the government (this is my chart, made for a presentation given on Vietnam's government):
In reality it is of course more complex than that, but this should give you at least some idea.
Reach of Government:
There is a constant scholarly debate in the United States as to where government power ends and private freedom begins but at least there is an agreement that government power ends somewhere. In Vietnam this is not the case. Government has regulatory or monitoring capacity over virtually every aspect of life. For example, all NGOs have to register with the government and, in theory, could be shut down if they take actions contrary to the government but this doesn't happen much if at all. Yet, as discussed below, Vietnam's government actually tolerates much more dissent than one might think with such a controlling government.
Internal Structure of Government Agencies:
The internal structure of government agencies (called ministries in Vietnam) are simple top-down hierarchies. A person moves up within the hierarchy as they advance in their career and tends to stay within a single agency the entire time. Coordination between agencies is largely nonexistent and leaders of agencies feel they can only coordinate with the permission of the local People's Committee. This leads to what is known as silo-based thinking where actions among agencies that ought to work together, such as Transportation and Land Use, are not coordinated and may be inconsistent.
Confucianism in Vietnam's Government:
I would be remiss if I did not mention the role of Confucianism in Vietnam's government as its teachings explain a lot about the government's functions. In particular, Confucianism prizes three similar goals:
- All subjects must obey the king (or government). Interpreted to mean that you should respect the hierarchy and will of the group.
- All children must obey their parents and honor their ancestors. It is often said that the primary religion in Vietnam is not Buddhism but ancestor worship.
- All students must respect and obey their teachers. What the teacher says must be right and should not generally be questioned. This value is also often cited as the reason why Vietnam so highly prizes education.
Once you understand these things it is easy to see why the government is structured as it is structured, with a top-down hierarchy that pays attention to the status quo.
"Corruption" in Vietnam's Government:
One of the unfortunate realities in Vietnam is that because government officials are not paid enough directly, they engage in what most outsiders would term corruption. In fact, as little as 20% of what they need to meet basic living expenses is provided by direct government salaries. Vietnam has two budget systems, one is a current budget, which pays traditional ongoing expenses such as salaries or direct program costs, and the second is the investment budget, which is used by the government to encourage growth. The way that government employees earn a living despite the insufficient direct salary is by demanding premiums of typically around 20% on projects funded through the investment budget. What this means is that, for example, many vice-ministers really earn $250,000 USD a year, far greater than most American officials in similar positions. One consequence of this premium system is the need to earn high, and often unrealistic, returns on investment in order to pay back the international loans often used to fund such projects.
A Primer on Government Actions and Values:
I will conclude with a quick primer on government actions and values so you can get a sense of what this all means:
- Order is to be prized above virtually anything else. The Vietnamese want to maintain an orderly society, even at the expense of some personal freedom.
- Education is the principal priority of much of the public and the government tries to respect this goal as much as they can.
- Dissent is tolerated as long as it is not written and is in fact tolerated much of the time even then as long as it on certain subjects (such as the environment and education) where it is considered acceptable to criticize the government. There are occasional crackdowns but it is not like China, censorship is largely informal rather than formal.
- The Vietnamese government (and its people to a large extent) is very risk adverse. They are generally unwilling to take a long-term risk on a project (24 months or longer) unless they are quite certain it will succeed because to fail is to lose face.
- When the Vietnamese decide a problem is their responsibility (such as responding to the November floods in Hanoi), the government can react quickly and decisively. However, when they don't see it as their problem, even if they acknowledge a problem exists (such as with their education system), they fall back on the status quo and do very little. The government therefore tends to either make dramatic change or no change.
- It is not so much what you know but whom you know that matters. As in much of Asia, relationships matter and failing to understand that will cause you to be ineffective.
- Economic Development comes largely from the outside as a result of Foreign Direct Investment, meaning that the government has come to rely on foreign companies for its development.
- A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is basically meaningless. Only when there is money on the table can things actually be done.
- Always look forward. This value causes Vietnam to, for example, be wiling to forgive the US for its actions during the Vietnam War much more readily than certainly we would in a similar case.
- Be pragmatic. The Vietnamese are very pragmatic despite their lack of willingness to take big risks.
I hope this helps at least a little.