Resilience of the Communist Party of Vietnam's Authoritarian Regime since Đổi Mới

Abstract

Unlike communist parties in the former Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has overcome crises to remain in power for the last 30 years and will most likely continue ruling in the coming decades. Strategies and tactics undertaken by the CPV are found to be identical to those canvassed in the extant literature on the durability of authoritarian regimes around the world. The present paper argues that the CPV's regime has been resilient thus far because it has successfully restored and maintained public trust, effectively constrained its opposition at home, and cleverly reduced external pressures. To support this argument, the analysis electively focuses on four aspects: (1) economic performance, (2) political flexibility, (3) repression of the opposition, and (4) expansion of international relations.

Does history repeat itself? Economic development and policy convergence in Vietnam and South Korea

“…In Vietnam, high economic performance was also deemed vital to restoring the CPV's legitimacy, which had been threatened by the economic and social crises under the socialist command economy until the mid‐1980s. While building public trust and suppressing opposition, Doi Moi and ensuing economic liberalisation have enabled the CPV to maintain absolute authoritarian power for the past three decades (Malesky and London ; Nguyen ). This was also manifested in the severe regulation of labour relations, freedom of expression, and civil society activism (Freedom House ).…”

“…The CPV and government remain pre-eminent in policy and crack down on any opposition to the official line. The print and broadcast media are all state controlled while civil society is restricted in size, scope, and autonomy (Nguyen 2013;Murray 2017).…”

Vietnam's Model of Market Socialism: Development Model in Crisis?

“…However, the poor performance and mismanagement of SOEs have led to problems such as corruption, inefficiency, and a lack of transparency, which in turn affect the wider economy and undermine public confidence in the model. The SOE crisis threatens the sustainability of Vietnam's market socialism model, as it slows down the ability of Vietnam to obtain high economic growth and social welfare (Nguyen and Do 2020). The conflict between the SOE crisis and the goals of Vietnam's market socialism model becomes a critical problem for the institutional reform of the VCP.…”

Foreign Direct Investment Liberalization in Communist Regimes: A Theoretical Model Based on the Comparison Among China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam

“…In contrast to North Korea and Cuba, the socioeconomic structures of China and Vietnam have been supportive of the economic liberalization since the onset of FDI liberalization. Due to the more diversified structures of China’s and Vietnam’s economies—divided into provincial enterprises, an informal private economy, state-owned enterprises, and the military-controlled sector—a single actor did not gain a dominating role (Nguyen, 2016). Moreover, the division of Vietnam and China into provinces with higher degrees of autonomy provided representation for local decision makers in the Chinese and Vietnamese Communist Parties (Malesky et al, 2011; Riedel and Turley, 1999).…”