Leveled Mountains and Broken Fences

Measuring and Analysing De Facto Decentralisation in Vietnam

Bibliographic Data

ID12824398
AuthorsEdmund J Malesky (0000-0001-5737-9195, Duke University, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume3
Issue2
Pages307-336
Publication date2004-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of East Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1568-0584 • E-ISSN: 1570-0615
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/1570061042780865
OpenAlexW2091011975
LanguageEN
Citations received7

The article seeks to measure and explain provincial autonomy in Vietnam during the reform era, arguing that the absence of an effective measure of autonomy to date has limited the scope for developing an overarching theory capable of explaining autonomy across a range of settings. The article pioneers a method for measuring autonomy involving a content analysis of Vietnamese newspapers over a ten-year period, noting whenever provinces are reported for engaging in a series of carefully defined autonomous acts. Having developed the measure of autonomy, the article seeks to test four hypotheses for explaining it, namely geographical location, relations with central government, initial conditions on the eve of reform, and the dominant source of economic activity in terms of ownership. The article finds that no single factor accounts for autonomy on its own but also that there is only a weak relationship between autonomy and a province's geographical location and that provinces heavily represented in central government tend to be among the least autonomous

Autonomy · Central government · De facto · Decentralization · Development economics · Economics · Geography · Government (linguistics · Local government · Newspaper · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Regional autonomy · Scope (computer science · Sociology · Vietnamese · Law · Public Administration · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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