Shaping policy implementation in local government in Vietnam: The case of low-income housing policy in Da Nang City

There is a growing literature on the policy process at the central level in Vietnam but less attention to exactly how policy gets shaped and implemented at the local level, in the specific culture and context of Vietnam and... [ view full abstract ]

There is a growing literature on the policy process at the central level in Vietnam but less attention to exactly how policy gets shaped and implemented at the local level, in the specific culture and context of Vietnam and particularly taking account of the evolving role of the one-party state. The system of government in reunified Vietnam since the end of the war in 1975 has been described as "democratic centralism", which, at least formally, aggregates consensus on public policy upwards to a final collective decision by the central government followed by translation into policies and detailed directives mandatory for all state agencies at both central and local levels. However both Western and Vietnamese scholars have described actual practices as considerably more nuanced than that, with varying scope at the local level for some autonomy in detailed policy design and implementation. This paper aims to contribute to the literature by offering findings of a study of influences on the policy process in local government in Vietnam, using the case of low-income housing policy in Da Nang City from 2005-2013. The findings suggest how the city government could manoeuvre within the boundaries set by the central government in developing and implementing new policies, including the important role of a distinctive local leadership.
An initial research framework to guide investigation of the case was developed from Hofferbert’s (1974) funnel of causality model, to integrate influences particularly from socio-economic factors, institutional constraints, and the values and interests of policy elites. Adjustments were based on insights from other theories, models and frameworks, as well as from prior knowledge about policy-making in developing countries and in the single-party states of China and Vietnam. Data were collected from published and unpublished documents and interviews with policy process participants. Qualitative analysis techniques were used to identify and characterise the critical influences on the policy process in local government.
Evidence from the case contributes in three main ways to the literature. First, although space for policy innovation was constrained by the authority of central government, the city government in fact enjoyed significant autonomy in policy implementation and the central–local relationship had room for policy experimentation and learning, which shaped detailed policy significantly at both central and local levels. Second, although the conventional wisdom is that policy-making in Vietnam is collective and consensus-based with no role for individual leadership, in the Da Nang case a party politician was able to impose his will on the local government apparatus. Finally, the study also shed light on the opportunities for policy learning in the developing relationship between state and private sectors in Vietnam. Faced with profit-driven private developers, the local government had to experiment with various incentives to ensure private-sector participation in developing low-cost housing.