One of the most significant achievements of the 20 years of renovation in Vietnam is bringing into full play socialist democracy. This issue has been highlighted in the documents of the 10th National Party Congress asserting that socialist democracy is both objective and motivation of renovation. Vietnam is building a socialist society towards a wealthy people, powerful nation, equality, democracy and civilisation with working people as masters.

Socialist democracy is associated with the Rule-of-Law State of the people, by the people and for the people under the leadership of the Communist Party.

So, socialist democracy is one of the objectives of renovation that reflect the superior nature of socialism. To advance towards socialism together with development of a socialist-oriented market economy, acceleration industrialisation and modernisation and construction of an advanced Vietnamese culture of strong national identities, it is imperative to successfully build socialist democracy, exercising great national unity, building the Rule-of-Law State while developing a pure and powerful party.

Building and gradually perfecting socialist democracy, ensuring that all powers belong to the people, have been reviewed by the Party as one of the five major lessons of renovation.

The Party is aware that socialist democracy reflects the close ties among the Party, State and people.

We are striving to have the people's right to the masters be implemented, the people are the subjects of power, all powers belong to the people, the State is the recipient of social power entrusted by the people to organise and implement the Party's political line, to act in accordance with the people's interests, to do good things and avoid doing bad things for the people, to care for development of people's strength, to foster and spare people's strength in accordance with President Ho Chi Minh's teachings.

People are the masters of society, so people not only have the rights, but also the obligations to take part in planning and executing all Party’s lines and State’s policies. As President Ho Chi Minh put it, people exercise their rights and obligations as the masters of society.

A genuine, advanced and modern democracy is always linked to the rights and obligations, interests and responsibility. These are inseparable in the relationship between citizens and the State, between individuals and society, between members and the community. All these have been regulated and adjusted by laws to ensure that democracy will not be turned into the counter democratic behaviours.

Laws, as mentioned, are the most effective tools of governance to ensure people’s rights via State’s power. Laws are inseparable from democracy and the other way round. The healthy movement and development of democracy requires the presence of the Socialist Rule-of-Law State, in which Law is the limit, the corridor of movement for democracy. All organisations in society, all citizens and civil servants must perform in accordance with legal standards, constitution and with legal status. The control and regulation of individual behaviours as well as performance of each organisation, is not only influenced by law but also oriented by morality. This highlights the legal and human characteristics of socialist democracy.

In this way, achieving the goal of democracy would lead to positive and healthy development of individuals and society.  Within democratic institutions of socialist democracy, the relationship between democracy and centralism on the principle (or regime) of democratic centralism of political operations and the relationship between democracy and solidarity, consensus and co-operation of the social community in social life as salient features. Solving all these relations would not only make democracy a genuine objective, but also motivation for development. It is the unity and mutual impact between objectives and motivation of democracy.

In the relationship between centralism and democracy in the organisation and operations of political organisations, democracy should be centralised as an inevitable, indispensable guarantee.

So, centralism is not against democracy, but only opposed to anarchical  freedom, dispersion, and localism. Democracy is not opposed to centralism but to bureaucracy and dictatorship.

The Communist Party of Vietnam, thanks to its firm maintenance of democratic centralism, has become a combative Party with a strength of organisation and discipline. With the Socialist Rule-of-Law State, democratic centralism will reinforce governance, especially economic management, and management of resources for development.

With socio-political organisations in the political system, democratic centralism has also become an inevitable objective demand as a result of the goal to execute people’s democracy and rights to mastery.

The role of the Fatherland Front should be taken into consideration. The organisation and different levels of the Front, shall perform the principle of democratic centralism. Within the relationship between the Front and its members, the Party and State, the two influential factors, shall reach democratic consensus in their co-operation and agreement that respect and convince each other instead of centralising democracy. That’s why, it’s important for Vietnam to combine democratic centralism with democratic consultation to exercise democracy.

In social life, social community, and within the nation, unity is aimed to accelerate democracy and for genuine unity to be achieved, it’s crucial to ensure democracy. Only with true respect and trust can unity be genuine and wholehearted enough for the common goal and interest.

This spells out the necessity of building democratic culture in social life for the person-to-person and organisation – to – organisation relationship to be truly imbued with equality, respect, trust and co-operation for development. These matters should be studied and applied because mechanisms, regulations are developed from legal, moral and cultural standards. Highlighting Socialist State ruled by law, promoting democracy, the 10th National Party congress documents also deal with ideologies and the necessity to establish a mechanism to protect Constitution, scrutinise constitutionality and legality of all operations and behaviors, to uphold the role of consultation, counter-argument and social monitoring of the Front, socio-political organisations towards the Party’s lines and State’s policies. In order to promote democracy and perfect the Socialist Rule-of-Law State, the accomplishment of the legal system has become an imperative task.

These are the guarantees for accelerating the role of democracy as a motivative force in society.

Through realities in the process of renovation, the Party’s ideas and arguments have reached higher levels, opening up opportunities and prospects for building Vietnamese society into a democratic society in which people are genuine masters of the State and society, and the core of power. So, it is important to exercise democracy seriously and on a large scale, primarily within the Party. Healthy development of democracy within the Party will not only strengthen the Party itself, but also highlight and accelerate democracy in society. The exercise of widespread democracy constitutes a master key to solve all problems. President Ho Chi Minh has upheld the role, objective and motivation of democracy towards social development.

Ho Chi Minh Thought on democracy, his cultural and democratic lifestyles are being thoroughly studied and applied in realities by the Party in the process of renovation, Party building, governance, and reforms of the current political system.

BY PROF. DR. HOANG CHI BAO
Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy