Political System in Vietnam

By political system we mean the system of government in a nation (Hill, 2007). Supposedly, Vietnam’s reform approach based on history above followed “step-by-step” migration to more market based mechanisms of political, legal and economic environment rather than quick “big bang” changes (Herold, 2004). Initially, the persistent division among the political among the political elite has so far prevented the leadership from clear direction and objective setting (Herold, 2004). A key feature of state capacity remains the ability to create outward unity, which is maintained through a complex process of political compromising (Milor, 1994). As far as everyone knows that Vietnam was initially concerned on the administrative capacity, in 1995 it has so far proven not effective to the government (Herold, 2004). The problems are basically conflicting interests that limit the policy capacity. Moreover, the principles and policies developed by the government are often contradictory and inconsistent, making it difficult to communicate and to implement (Catton, 2005) It is therefore not surprising when the political situation in this country have often been described as “two steps forward, one step back” (Herold, 2004).

Then, there is little prospect of change from within the administration by the establishing of bureaucrats. Recent changes in the political leadership indicate that the influence of “old”