Political System In Vietnam

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The case of Vietnam is pretty striking with reference to the link between the government, the economy, and the maximization of the utility of the majority of its citizens. We will first briefly explain how the Vietnamese political system is organised. We will then describe more deeply the role of the government in the national economy, and its consequences for the citizens, through the example of the production of coffee. The socialist republic of Vietnam is a communist country. This is one of the last countries in the world to have a one-party political system, and to officially espouse communism. The system is ruled by the 2013 Constitution. The President is the head of state, and the Prime Minister is the head of the government. The legislative…show more content…
The members are nominated by the president, and confirmed by the National Assembly. The President also can dismiss the Deputy Chief Judge of the supreme Courts. Thus, it appears clear that the Vietnamese Communist Party has an important role upon the political system, from the assembly to the supreme court. Hence, the definition of separation of powers, as defined by Montesquieu in The spirit of the laws (1748) is far from being fullfilled. The Vietnamese government is following a socialist doctrine. In 1986, the communist congress decided to implement the Đổi mới, an economic reform to realise a “socialist-oriented market economy”. Nevertheless, the economic policy is centrally planned by the government. It is important to highlight that some Vietnamese economic policies effectively maximized the utility of the majority of citizens. For example, the poverty rate has fallen from 60 percents to 20 percents during the past two decades . If we use the Rawlsian view of the Pareto equilibrium, inequality matters. Using this egalitarian social welfare function, the government should make decisions such that the welfare of the society is the welfare of its worst-off citizens. In that case of the poverty rate, Vietnam’s policy maximized the utility of the majority of…show more content…
Vietnam is since 2000 the second biggest producer of coffee worldwide. The favourable weather of the Dak Lak Province makes it one of the main region for producing coffee. Hence, the Vietnamese socialist government, in its 2001-2010 “Socio-Economic Strategy Development Plan”, decided to capitalize on the boom of the coffee export business. They decided to relocate around 260,000 people to the Dak Lak Region. It resulted in social conflict. These 260,000 people were from the Kinh ethny, whereas the people previously in the Dak Lak region were indigenous people from the Ede ethny. The coffee industry benefited to the Kinh more than to the Ede. The Economic plan decided to use a huge amount of chemical inputs, which affected the soil and the natural habitat very hardly. The Ede, who were using this natural habitat, for example in times of drought, were affected. Coffee culture impacted, inter alia, the rice culture and hunting. Thus, food had to be purchased from outside. Moreover, the land laws highly underprivileged the Ede. Social equity and equality do not seem to be part of the economic plan from the Vietnamese
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