The Politics of Economic Reforms in Vietnam: a case of State-Owned-Enterprise Equitization

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is on Vietnamb s b co phan hoab or equitization process b the Vietnamese version of privatization. This process can be characterized with overall sluggishness and fluctuation (or non-linearity). While most of previous studies focus on the overall slow pace of equitization, the thesis also aims to explaining its b non-linearityb . In so doing, I introduce the dual dynamics model which is composed from the Fragmented Authoritarianism model, various theories on government b business interactions, and the Garbage Can theory, to examine the equitization process at two levels: the inter-bureaucracy politics at the macro level and the State patrons-enterprise interactions at the micro level. The main findings of this thesis are as follows. The policy-making process in equitization can be characterized with authority fragmentation and instability, which result in continuous bargaining and negotiations among an increasing range of State actors and agencies over policy changes. Policy changes are thus often slow and incremental, and sometimes unpredictable. Meanwhile, at the micro level, bargaining also takes place between the State patrons and their subordinate enterprises due to their different preferred strategies of equitization, leading to slow and incremental equitization. Last but not least, the interactions between the macro and micro levels have further strengthened such pattern of overall sluggishness but non-linearity in Vietnamb s equitization.