[ndlr] Avis de parution. Présentation de l’éditeur.

In Political Dynamics of Grassroots Democracy in Vietnam, Hai Hong Nguyen investigates the correlation between independent variables and grassroots democracy to demonstrate that grassroots democracy has created a mutually empowering mechanism for both the party-state and the peasantry.

Hai Hong Nguyen is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia. He holds a Masters in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from Lund University, Sweden, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Queensland, Australia. He has been teaching international human rights law, international relations, and politics in Vietnam and Australia.

Review :

‘Hai Hong Nguyen’s Political Dynamics of Grassroots Democracy in Vietnam is a path-breaking study of Vietnam’s attempt to apply its concept of grassroots democracy to local government in response to rural unrest in the late 1990s. Based on field work in Vietnam, it represents a major milestone in the study of politics in Vietnam and will be the foundation for all future studies on political change in Vietnam.’ – Carlyle A. Thayer, Emeritus Professor, University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia

Source : Palgrave

★ ★ ★

[Nguyen, Hai Hong est aussi le coauteur avec Pham Quang Minh d’un article récent sur le processus de démocratisation du Viêt-Nam :]

Hai Hong Nguyen and Minh Quang Pham. “Democratization in Vietnam’s Post-Doi Moi One-Party Rule: Change from Within, Change from the Bottom to the Top, and Possibilities”. In Chantana Banpasirichote Wungaeo, Boike Rehbien, and Surichai Wungaeo (Ed.), Globalization and Democracy in Southeast Asia: Challenges, Responses and Alternative Futures, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

The analysis in this chapter shows that Vietnam is undergoing a process of democratization that is driven by Đổi Mới. While the authors concur with many others that political reforms are taking place more slowly than economic liberalization, the authors contend that these reforms will eventually materialize. The question of regime change in Vietnam, from one-party rule to a multiparty system, lies beyond the scope of this chapter, as regime change is influenced by myriad factors, including citizens’ emotions.

The chapter focuses on 3 questions: (1) What are the reforms and actual changes that have taken place in Vietnam in the last three decades since the CPV officially introduced the Đổi Mới policy in the late 1980s? (2) How are these reforms and changes significant to the life of the people? (3) What are the latest developments that could have an impact on Vietnamese politics at present and in the future? The analysis, which focuses on three areas, namely economic liberalization, political reforms, and the emergence of civil society, shows that even under the rule of one single party, democratic institutions do exist and are continuously being reformed in order to respond to pressures from within society.

The authors argue that democratization is occurring in Vietnam’s one-party authoritarian regime, but it is strictly controlled and limited to cautious political experiments and reforms under pressure from within the party and society. Based on the analysis, the authors characterize this process as change from within, change from the bottom to the top, and slow but steady change, in contrast to democratization processes in other places that occur quickly but are unsustainable, perhaps even resulting in chaos. The authors label this process as democratization with Vietnamese characteristics.

Source : Palgrave

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