Viet Nam Human Rights
Development of modern social democracy in Vietnam
1/3/17
After wars, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV),
the country has been developing toward the socialism. However, there are quite
a lot of people do not comprehend the socialist goals and therefore do not
totally believe in those targets. Especially, some even assume that the
socialism has no democracy. So, this article would clarify what is social
democracy? And, how it is more advanced than capitalist one?
First, social democracy is a political, social and economic ideology that
supports economic and social interventions to promote social
justice within the framework of a capitalist
economy, and a policy regime involving collective bargaining arrangements, a
commitment to representative democracy, measures for income redistribution, regulation of the
economy in the general interest and welfare state provisions. Social democracy
thus aims to create the conditions for capitalism to lead to greater
democratic, egalitarian and solidaristic outcomes; and is
often associated with the set of socioeconomic policies that became prominent
in Northern and Western Europe—particularly the Nordic model in the Nordic
countries—during the latter half of the 20th century.
Social democracy originated as a political ideology that advocated an evolutionary and peaceful transition from
capitalism to socialism using established political processes
in contrast to the revolutionary approach to transition associated with orthodox
Marxism. That’s what has happened in Vietnam, though the country
evolved from feudalism, skipping capitalist phase. Now, CPV, armed with the Ho
Chi Minh’s thought, has firmly led the nation to social democratic values,
equality, social justice and freedom.
Moreover, drawing experience from the collapse of Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe, CPV has reformed and adapted the Marxism on socialism in a
modern way that is suitable with the country’s background and circumstance.
Modern social democracy is characterized by a commitment to policies aimed at
curbing inequality, oppression of underprivileged groups, and poverty; including support for universally
accessible public
services likecare for the
elderly, child care, education, health care, and workers' compensation. The social democratic movement also
has strong connections with the labour
movement and trade unions,
and is supportive of collective bargaining rights for workers as well as
measures to extend democratic decision-making beyond politics into the economic
sphere in the form of co-determination for employees and other economic
stakeholders.
Karl Marx—whose work
is particularly relevant in our era of “globalization”—recognized that
capitalism represented an increase in human freedom and productive power. Under
feudalism, political and economic life had been merged. Born a serf, one
remained a serf, subject to the political and economic domination of one’s lord.
Capitalism freed the economic sphere from the domination of the political.
Under capitalism, the worker and capitalist contracted with one another free of
the burdens of traditional religious or status relations. Though the rise of
capitalist economic relations in Europe predates political democracy by over
two centuries, the rhetoric of freedom of contract and legal equality that
arose during capitalism’s infancy in the 17th century contributed to the growth
of movements for political democracy. In a capitalist democracy, one’s economic
status, in theory, does not affect one’s political and legal status. All
members of society are to be judged equally before the law and have the equal
right to participate politically (one person, one vote). But Marx illustrated
that the inequalities in “civil society” (or economic life) undercut the
promise of political equality. In the political “free market” for votes,
capital has more influence than labor, and this structural inequality erodes
the promise of political democracy.
We cannot accept capitalism’s conception of economic relations as “free
and private,” because contracts are not made among economic equals and because
they give rise to social structures which undemocratically confer power upon
some over others. Such relationships are undemocratic in that the citizens
involved have not freely deliberated upon the structure of those institutions
and how social roles should be distributed within them (e.g., the relationship
between capital and labor in the workplace or men and women in child rearing).
We do not imagine that all institutional relations would wither away under
socialism, but we do believe that the basic contours of society must be
democratically constructed by the free deliberation of its members.
Marx did not only
argue that capitalism undermined democracy. He argued against the very essence
of it as an economic system. In his analysis, capitalism was an exploitative
mode of production in which the capitalist class extracted “surplus value” from
the working class. For the first time in human history, labor power itself was
sold as a free commodity on the market. No longer were people slaves or serfs
to their masters. Workers were free to sell their labor power to whatever
capitalist chose to employ them. But the asymmetry of power in this alleged
“free exchange” is that while the capitalist class owns the means of
production, the working class only has their labor power to sell. This
asymmetry means that while capitalists pay labor a “living wage,” the value of
this wage (the value of labor power) is always less than the value of the
commodities produced by the workers’ labor—if capital could not make a profit
it would not employ labor. Workers’ needs under capitalism are always
subordinate to the bottom line.
In Vietnam now, the social democracy aims to
overcome these disadvantages and provide all workers a fair constract to
benefit themselves and the country./.
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All comments [ 10 ]
Democracy possesses many commonly held values of humankind, however the development process of democracy differs from country to country.
In Viet Nam, democracy boasts typical characteristics that made the country's regime different from others.
The current socialist democratic regime in Viet Nam is the first ever democratic regime in the country's political history.
Viet Nam 's first democratic regime was born during the national liberation revolution and it was the fruit of the entire people's struggle for liberation under the leadership of a communist party.
Viet Nam 's first democratic regime had its roots in a struggle to win and defend national independence for which generations of Vietnamese people had contributed not only their brainpower but also sacrificed their blood.
Viet Nam has built its concepts on citizens' rights and obligations, as well as institutional tools and mechanisms to implement democracy around this philosophy.
In many cases, the country viewed national independence and freedom the same as democracy and equality in the meaning of the right to exist and develop like other nations.
The socialist democratic regime was the evolvement of democracy at a higher degree.-of-democracy-in-viet-nam.html#bPm4i4uTSHJYMtu3.99
It is noticeable that though still under construction, the socialist democratic regime in Viet Nam has brought into full play its pre-eminent characteristics.
The principle of a single, strongly focused political party seems to be the most suitable solution to Viet Nam.
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