European political culture and its impacts on vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITITES - LE THU TRANG EUROPEAN POLITICAL CULTURE AND ITS IMPACTS ON VIETNAM MASTER THESIS Major: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Hanoi – 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES - LE THU TRANG EUROPEAN POLITICAL CULTURE AND ITS IMPACTS ON VIETNAM Master Thesis in International Relations Code: 60 31 0206 Advisor: Dr Le The Que Hanoi - 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Concept of Political Culture 1.1.1 Basic Concepts 1.1.2 Concept of Political Culture 11 1.2 Political System - the Center of Political Culture and its Relationship with Political Culture 13 1.2.1 Structure of the Political System - the Center of Political Culture 13 1.2.2 Relationship between the Political System and Political Culture 15 1.3 Features and Functions of Political Culture 16 1.3.1 Features 16 1.3.2 Functions 17 CHAPTER 2: EUROPEAN POLITICAL CULTURE 20 2.1 Formation and Development 20 2.1.1 Formation 20 2.1.2 Development 23 2.2 Characteristics of European Political Culture 25 2.2.1 Sources of Characteristics 25 2.2.2 Characteristics 28 2.3 Political Cultural Characteristics of France and the Soviet Union 33 2.3.1 French Political Culture 33 2.3.2 The Soviet Union‘s Political Culture 37 CHAPTER 3: EUROPEAN POLITICAL CULTURE’S IMPACTS ON VIETNAM 44 3.1 Overview of the History of Oriental Political Culture and the Influential Process of Western Political Culture 47 3.1.1 Overview of the History of Oriental Political Culture 47 3.1.2 Impacts of European Factors on Oriental Countries 49 3.1.3 Impact of European factors on Vietnamese political culture 51 3.2 Vietnamese political culture in the history 54 3.2.1 Cultural fundamental of Vietnamese politics 54 3.2.2 Feudal era 56 3.2.2 French domination 58 3.3 European Political Culture‘s Impacts on Vietnam Right after its Birth 58 3.3.1 Environment of Vietnamese political Culture in the Two Colonial Exploitations 58 3.3.2 European Political Culture‘s Impacts on Vietnam in the Socialist-Building Era 69 3.3.3 Characteristics of Current Vietnamese Political Culture 73 CONCLUSION 82 REFERENCE 85 INTRODUCTION Rationale of the Study Political culture is a vast field that contains historical experience, sense of social community, customs, habits and trends affecting individuals‘ behaviors in political activities Hence, political culture research is of great value It not only provides the researchers with an overview of a process but also brings profound values to science and society Speaking of politics and political culture, people often think of politicians and parties but ignore many other factors Therefore, political culture should be examined comprehensively from various perspectives, which is the aim of this study Europe is seen as one of the ―cradles‖ of human civilizations with the great achievements in the fields of economics, culture, society and politics Studies on European political culture help us understand more about this continent as well as learn about its valuable experience of hundreds of years Because of its strategic geographical position, Vietnam was the target of invasion by many countries in the world for ages ―Flexibility‖ strategy has formed a characteristic of the Vietnamese by cleverly absorbing the achievements of invading countries to combine with the national traditional identities Political culture is one of such wonderful combinations This study will describe the process of exchange and selection, and the characteristics of Vietnamese political culture Political culture has certain effects on the formation and development of diplomatic culture The study will serve as a basis for the analysis of European diplomatic culture as well as Vietnamese one Thus, the countries will understand each other and share the interests to collaborate on the basis of mutual benefit or resolve international conflicts by new diplomatic thinking Literature Overview The literature used for research and analysis is divided into the following groups: (i) Documents on political culture theory (ii) Documents on the European political culture in general and political culture of European countries in particular (iii) Documents on Vietnamese political culture as well as the orientation of building political culture in the new context There are original documents of foreign scholars, the documents translated into Vietnamese and many works of Vietnamese scholars Regarding political culture theory, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations and The Civic Culture Revisited are the two typical documents providing the basic information about political culture as well as the source to analyze the characteristics of the political culture of the countries in the world It can be said that Gabriel A Almond was the founder of the new field and his ideas and concepts greatly influenced it In addition, the theory of political culture has been complemented and diversified by the studies of other authors such as Stephen Welch (1993), The Concept of Political Culture or Formisano, Ronald P., The Concept of Political Culture, etc The documents on the European political culture are extremely rich and diverse The most typical is Roger Eatwell (1997), European Political Culture: Conflict or Convergence with nearly 300 pages providing extensive information about the features of fundamental European political culture and political culture of each country in this region Research materials on the countries in the European region are very large as well: Jean Blondel and Takashi Inoguchi (2006), Political Culture in Asia and Europe: Citizens, States and Societal Valurs, Robert I Rotberg, Social Capital and Political Culture in Africa, America, Australasia, and Europe, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol 29, no (Winter, 1999), Phillip Schlesinger, From Culture Defense to Political Culture: Media, Politics, and Collective Identity in the European Union, Media Culture Society, 1997, Vladimir Tismaneanu, Political Culture and Civil Society in Russia and the New States of Eurasia, John Gaffney and Eva Kolinsky (edited), Political Culture in France and Germany, A Contemporary Perspective, etc Besides, there are additional research documents on Eastern political culture particularly of the developing countries and China such as: Detlef Pollack et al (2003), Political Culture in Post-Communist Europe: Attitudes in New Democracies, Robert C Turker (1987), Political Culture and Leadership in Soviet Russia: from Lenin to Gorbachev, Larry Diamond (1993), Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries, Zhenghuan Zhou (1999), The Liberal Concept of Rights, Political Culture and Democratic Change in China In recent years, the interest in the study and teaching of political science and Vietnamese political culture has greatly grown both in Vietnam and overseas From different perspectives, Vietnamese and foreign scientists have proposed various approaches to identify the characteristics of traditional and modern Vietnamese political cultures Studies on political culture of Vietnamese scholars covering all aspects from a theoretical basis addressing the fundamental problems and clarifying the common-used concepts in political science in the West such as ―politics‖, ―political culture‖, ―political system‖, ―political process‖, ―political environment‖, etc or introducing various scientific theories, approaches and the basic arguments of Western scholars about East Asian political culture to regional and Vietnamese political cultures, particularly in the renewal period Tập đề cương giảng Chính trị học (Lectures on Political Studies by National Political and Admistrative Institute) and Văn hóa trị việc bồi dưỡng đội ngũ cán lãnh đạo nước ta (Political Culture and Leader Training in Vietnam Nowadays by Pham Ngoc Quang) are the first two studies mentioning the concept of political culture The former referred to only one aspect of political culture – politics – instead of introducing the concept as well as an overview of the political culture while in the latter the authors succeeded in generalizing the concept of culture as well as its performance and influence on political life These are of a great practical value In addition to the ―enlightening‖ studies mentioned above, there are several researches approaching a part or the whole concept of political culture Hoa Kỳ - Tiến trình văn hóa trị (America – Its Political Cultureal Process by Do Loc Diep) mainly examined American political culture but it highlighted the influence of European political culture and the process of receiving and transforming the European features to form the unique American political culture Luong Van Ke conducted several intensive studies on European political culture In his two books of Thế giới đa chiều (Multi-Dimensional World) and Đề cương giảng: Chính trị học so sánh (Draft Lectures on Comparative Politics), a part of European history was lively replayed and the formation and the development of modern European political culture was also shown Besides the studies directly or indirectly addressing political culture, there are supporting researches in term of theory They are: Hồ Chí Minh tồn tập (Ho Chi Minh’s Complete Works), Journal of Philosophy, Journal of European Studies, Mác Ăngghen tuyển tập (MarxEngels’ Selected Works) The foreign resources (in translation) are also quite various They are Jean Jacques Rousseau, Bàn khế ước xã hội (Social Contract) and Montesquieu, Tinh thần pháp luật (The Spirit of Laws) translated by Hoang Thanh Dam, or Wang Changjian, Nghiên cứu so sánh phương thức cầm quyền đảng đại (A Comparative Study of Ruling Methods of Contemporary Political Parties), Crane Brinton, Robert Lee Wolff, John B Christopher, Văn minh phương Tây (Western Civilization), etc The common advantage of these studies is the provision of wide theory and knowledge of many socio-political issues However, they failed to directly and intensively examine the political culture, especially European political culture 10 of traditional Vietnamese political culture are maintained and promoted to suit the new context The sense of national independence, self-reliance, patriotism and community solidarity has become viable content of traditional political culture of Vietnam; national pride, national culture, patriotism, unity, development of internal resources, people‘s strength together with the appreciation of the talented create the vitality of political culture; respect for ethics, respect for justice, justice defense, national determination, humanity, tolerance and generosity make Vietnamese political culture humane; and the creativity has brought a cultural beauty for Vietnamese politics Building the rule-of-law state The success of the August Revolution and the ideas accumulated in 30 years abroad allowed President Ho Chi Minh to build the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which was law-ruled and democratic It was a methodical, orderly and correct reform He was concerned about both sides: quick organization of the institutions of the state apparatus and issuing (constitutional and legal) regulations to provide the basis for legal and scientific ground for the organization of "a strong and wise government of the people." It is a state having an organizational structure and operation mechanism suitable for the conditions of contemporary Vietnam in terms of science, politics, sociology, law and organization Based on the models of state organization of the Soviet Union and France which includes "power restriction", Ho Chi Minh set up a board to compile the 1946 Constitution Thus, on the early days of new government, Ho Chi Minh built Vietnam as a modern state on the basis of inheriting the traditional national values and adopting the achievements of state organization of advanced countries A legitimate state was established in accordance with Vietnam's practices It was created by the people to serve the interests of the majority of working people, was based on the principles of assignment and coordination among the legislative, the executive and the judiciary This was the first progressive state in a country which used to be a colony, had just escaped from the colonial domination colonial and was preparing for the struggle to protect national independence Ho Chi Minh conceived a rule-of-law state as a government which was strong, wise, of the people, by the people, and for the people When amending the Constitution 1959, Ho Chi Minh affirmed that the State must develop democratic rights and political activity of all people to promote the activeness and creativity the people and make all Vietnamese citizens actually involved in the State governance Ho Chi Minh‘s main ideas on the model of state organization can be generalized as building a constitutional state of Vietnam, maintaining the class nature as well as promoting the whole national unity, bearing 81 both traditional spirit and modern elements, smoothly combining the morality and the law, and respecting state performance to serve the people in fact th On the basis of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh‘s ideology, from the Congress when adopting of the amendment of some articles in the Constitution 1992, the Party determined to promote the state‘s organization and operation reform, promote democracy and strengthen legislation Building socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people, for the people has been posed as a strategically important task by the Communist Party during comprehensive renovation of the country for the goal of wealthy people, strong nation, and an equal, democratic and civilized society A rule-of-law state is not only a state but also a common value and a manifestation of democratic development It is regarded as a way of organizing democracy, state and society on the basis of democracy, which are the basic elements creating the socialist political culture of Vietnam; thus, the construction of rule-oflaw state is indispensable in accordance with the history of building and developing the country and the main objective of the socialist nation with the aim of having "national independence associated with socialism to build a social mode of wealthy people, strong nation and an equal, democratic and civilized society The socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam not only shows the common values of the rule of law but also highlights its identities Unlike the capitalist rule-of-law state, the Vietnamese state is based on socialistoriented market economy It does not deny the objective laws of the market but serves as the basis for determining the difference between the market economies of capitalism and socialism Its social basis is the national unity Thanks to the national unity, the rule-of-law state has a large social basis and great ability of gathering and organizing the people to practice and promote democracy The main features of Vietnamese socialist rule-of-law state are seen as follows: i Socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam is of the people, by the people and for the people; all state power belongs to the people This is an essential feature recognized in the Constitution and reflected in the provisions on principles of organization and operation of the state from central to local levels of the legislature, executive and judiciary ii State power is unified with the assignment and coordination among state agencies in the implementation of the legislative, executive and judiciary This is a principle of organization and operation of the state and the direction of reforming the state iii Constitution and laws hold the top position in regulating the relations in all fields of social life The legal system fully and properly performs the will of the people in accordance 82 with objective reality and promotes social progress The obligation to obey the Constitution and laws is applied to all citizens without exception iv The state respects and ensures human and civil rights, raises the liability between the state and citizens, performs democracy and enhances discipline The goals of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh to ensure human and civil rights were institutionalized into law and have been effectively implemented by the state v The socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam respects and fully implements the international treaties that Socialist Republic of Vietnam has signed and participated vi The socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam is organized and operates under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam This is a basic characteristic to distinguish the socialist state and the capitalist state The basic characteristics of the rule-of-law state can be approached in many ways The state guarantees the supremacy of the Constitution and laws in social life The laws are the will of the people and the general interests of society The state implements and protects of the rights to freedom and democracy of citizens It ensures mutual responsibility between state agencies and citizens It has mechanisms and organizational systems to perform the legislative, executive and judiciary The state has a progressive and humanitarian nature, and scientific thinking and viewpoints Therefore, the rule-of-law state becomes a civilized value of humanity Improving democracy Democracy and democratic promotion are recognized more fully and more deeply by the Party Socialist democracy is a political form where the state recognizes the freedom and equality of citizens and identifies the people as the subject of power The ownership of the people is institutionalized into rules, principles of organization and operation of the state and political institutions forming the democracy Especially, democracy is not only a target but also the motivation of rapid and sustainable development of the country because it promotes the activeness and self-awareness and releases creative ability of men Socialist democracy acquires and develops the human values of democracy including bourgeois democracy This is very important because the way of development of Vietnam is a transition to socialism bypassing capitalism The difference in nature of socialist democracy from capitalist democracy is the fact that democracy is for the majority of working people and for the exploited minority Democracy is a long-term development process, a result of conscious democratic education and building democratic practices It depends on the development of economy, society, human and democratic culture This is a process without haste and must 83 not stay far from the political reality of the country Democracy is showed at all levels from the highest leading body to the local level Local democracy is particular important because the local political systems are considered as the Party and the State "in the people." It is necessary to explore and summarize the practices find out and complete the democracy including both representative democracy and direct democracy; determine to oppose against the distorted expression of democracy, radical democracy, and abuse of democracy to harass and harm the interests of the citizens and the State; strongly reject the false rhetoric about democracy and human rights The essence of promoting socialist democracy is to promote the role of the Party and the State, political organizations, social and people‘s organizations to mobilize all resources to accelerate industrialization and modernization of the country under socialist orientation It requires actively promoting the role, self-discipline and creativity of the people The objective to promote socialist democracy is to strengthen and enhance the unity of the Party, the consensus among the people, to build a strong socialist political system and keep political stability to prepare for comprehensive development; strengthen the ties between the Party, the State and the people to express the preeminent nature of the new regime The basic content of socialist democracy is that "All power belongs to the people" The Party thoroughly grasps Ho Chi Minh‘s ideology on socialist democracy: Democracy is associated with ownership of the people; population is the root, the people are the owner Building democratic socialism is a major goal and an important content of building socialism in Vietnam The Party has clarified some issues relating to democracy and promotion of socialist democracy in Vietnam The first one is the principle of democratic centralism in the organization and activities of the Party and State Democratic centralism is a unified content instead of a combination of centralization and democracy, and is based on democracy opposing to autocratic, bureaucratic, non-democratic centralization Democracy is based on centralization, solidarity and unity of will and action The second one is the principles of organization and operation of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front The democratic consultation (fundamentally different from democracy in the Party) is particularly important in condition of single-party ruling Vietnamese Fatherland Front is an open organization for all classes and social strata with the goal of unifying to promote the immense power of the national unity It performs the functions of supervision and public debate - a substantive democracy without multiple political parties The third one is the conditions for building and promoting socialist democracy Promoting economic democracy requires consistently implementing multicomponent economic policies Promoting political democracy requires improving the 84 performance of State agencies at all levels, ensuring the state of the people, by the people, for the people, and striving to build socialist rule-of-law state The prerequisite to build socialist democracy is the fact that the Party should be an example of democracy and good leader of the reform process of state activities Democracy in the Party determines the democracy in state institutions in association with social democracy Because the State agency has a Party organization, key officials are party members and party officials The principle of democratic centralism is seen in both the Party and the State Thus, the Party leading democratization process inevitably leads the State to perform democratization and leads the people to participate in monitoring agencies and public officials in ensuring people's ownership In promoting socialist democracy, the 11 th Congress continues to assert "to build and gradually perfect the socialist democracy, ensure democracy to be implemented in real life, at every level, in all aspects." Therefore, it requires comprehensive solutions: enhancing capacity of planning the guidelines, policies and laws of the Party and the State All the guidelines, policies and laws are for the interest of the people and based on the people's opinions; building a democratic society where the officials, Party members and civil servants are true servants of the people; struggling against bureaucracy, corruption and waste; identifying the organizational form and appropriate mechanism to facilitate all classes of people to participate in the work of the State; people enjoy and exercise their rights and obligations; enhancing the responsibility of the Party and the State toward the people; providing mechanisms facilitating the people to regularly participate in making recommendations to the Party and the State; promoting the leadership; and upholding the responsibility for the innovation State apparatus and political institutions implement the guidelines and policies of the Party and propose opinions to the Party in the process of policymaking The issues of promoting democracy and continuing to build and perfect socialist rule-of-law state is a major content in the innovation direction of the Party This is the result of 25 years of renovation and conducting the Party's practices and theoretical development Strengthening the People's Role in Politics The formation of ancient Vietnam state was not entirely based on class polarization The Vietnamese state is a welfare state and the social security issues must always be prioritized Therefore, the nation factor is always more dominant than the class factor Along with the struggle to preserve national independence, they formed the links connecting all the classes despite random opposite interests into unity in face of foreign invasion and developed a highly cohesive social community in Vietnam The role of individual is lower than that of the 85 community, which is an effective mode of existence of traditional society of Vietnam Thus, Vietnamese political insiders in the history are the community people because the community is capable of mounting and promoting the strengths of the family - the village - the country into national power in the struggle for national independence and freedom Political activities in the government are related to political activities of the masses In many cases, such activities may cause contradictions, conflicts and even opposition when the social interests of the people are violated and damaged due to the wrong policies of the State, the Government and the Party The backlash of the society, the mood, opinions and behaviors of the social forces are due to depravation of power whose most typical expression is the corruption in public administration The disorderly events, social crises, political crisis and institutional collapse which have occurred in many countries and paralyzed the cabinet (parliament, government) are the examples The social development in the process of reformation and innovation, especially the reformation of politics and economics will be progressive and sustainable by achieving the following criteria: growing economy, stable politics, justice, national solidarity and consensus society Accordingly, the political decisions must follow the rules, be agreed by his people and suit the development trend of the world It requires a very high intellectual capacity, social experience and action ability of the leading individuals and groups together with the ethics and responsibility that the political personality show in political activities in the relations with the public Political culture is expressed in the political activities of the people who are authorized to exercise the people‘s power in such a way To build this political culture, the apparatus, institutions and all actors participating in the political system must meet the demands of democracy, laws, discipline, science and ethics It must be shown in the motivation and responsibilities, in the capability and method and in the manners to the public in the spirit of respecting practices, facts, the people and laws Political culture is the culture exercising the people‘s power with all sense of responsibility and spirit of serving of the leaders In Vietnam, political activities are of people involved in politics in all areas of sociopolitical life, especially in the work of the ruling party, the State, and the socio-political organizations These people are divided into three main categories: political heads/leaders, political personnel, and the masses that are the largest force in the society As mentioned above, increasing the role of the masses and promoting their active participation in political activities not only prove democratic political institutions but also build an equal modern political culture "The ‗masses‘ is a concept to designate the majority of the people to relatively distinct with other political entities such as political leaders and professional 86 political staffs." Involved in politics, the masses are participating in political activities to various extents Political activists in leadership come from the masses who are interested in politics In other words, the political activities of the masses are the basis for the formation of the social elites The masses include all those in the strata of society In Vietnam, the working class, peasants, and intellectuals are the foundation They have passionate patriotism resulting from the struggle for national liberation and their spirit, sense and responsibility of implementing of their mandate to act as genuinely political people in the innovation of the country and building socialism The community solidarity makes all classes and components form a major and strong political force and fulfill the political tasks of the nation The masses master the society To complete the new political culture, enhancing the political role of the masses in the reforming process play a key role because the masses are determinant to the socialist revolution, industrialization and modernization in the renovation of the country and the building of socialism The tradition of Vietnamese political culture is the unity and coherence of the community so that building a strong national unity is considered as fundamental to promote the masses‘ power But it is more important to enhance the master‘s role of the people in the renovation to direct the masses to actively participate in political activities at a larger extent Their ability of mastering is not high due to the low cultural level, knowledge and understanding of laws, and the lack of sense of responsibility for the State and the society Therefore, strengthening legal education and improving people's knowledge are not only the demand of the construction of the rule of law but also an urgent need to enhance the master role of the people Developing appropriate organizational form and mechanisms to attract and facilitate all classes to engage in political activities will also enhance this role as the people can participate in the formulation and implementation of guidelines and policies as well as supervise the activities of the Party and the State In the national history of Vietnam in general and political history of Vietnam in particular, Vietnamese political insiders have constantly been formed, added and developed Each time with different political nature and objectives, traditional and modern political insiders have different characteristics Building and developing the modern political activists, socialist men, is an essential and extremely important mission Political objectives are right so that it is necessary to develop the country, nation and Vietnamese people in general well as modern political people in particular are goal and motivation of develop politics and all aspects of society, economics, culture, military, defense, security, health, education, science, technology, etc The main modern political actors of Vietnam is completing the advanced political institutions, constructing and developing of socialist-oriented market economy, 87 building the socialist rule-of-law state, building a profound national culture, implementing industrialization and modernization of the country, boosting international integration to help Vietnam develop along with the major powers and bringing the Vietnamese people in general and Vietnamese modern political activists to a new level In sum, Asia has always been an attractive target of European countries The process of conquest and colonization of Western capitalism not only brought Asia into a new stage of development but also changed the nature of the entire political system together with the political cultures of the countries in the area Western political culture‘s impacts changed from peaceful trading exchange to force and oppression in the colonial era They resulted from not only the ruling model, social division and classification but also the resistance of the people and the adjustments to adapt with new conditions of Asian countries Thus, as an Asian country located in a vulnerable position after long-lasting resistance against foreign invasions, traditional Vietnamese political culture was remarked by patriotism and the thinking of protecting national identities While traditional Vietnamese political culture was dramatically influenced by China but it managed to self-adjust and avoid being assimilated, modern Vietnamese political culture has actively achieved the advanced ideas of France and the Soviet Union (later as Russia) French political culture helped the Vietnamese people understand freedom, equality and humanity whereas the Soviet Union‘s political culture helped Vietnam find the way to liberate the country Thus, Vietnam‘s political culture is said to be formed by actively searching and achieving the political cultures of other countries which were suitable for Vietnam Currently, Vietnam clearly defines that building socialism was not only making a strong economy and a stable political system, but also a process of establishing the characteristics of a socialist political culture in which political insiders are the key factor to build a complete democratic society 88 CONCLUSION Political culture is increasingly attracting the attention of researchers even though it just newly emerges in political science Studying political culture also means examining the most typical characteristics of the culture and politics of each country and region Political culture is the result of a long-term movement and development, and has been supplemented to become complete Despite its origins of culture and politics, political culture is merely the behavior and sense of the citizenship towards politics and came into being only when class division appeared in society (which was associated with the formation of the state) Currently, there are many interpretations and approaches to political culture to gain a more comprehensive perception on the concept of political culture European countries share many similarities in culture, politics and society as well as historical events (the conquest of and the rule by the Roman Empire, the influence of Catholic religious reform movements, etc.) These similarities have created the similarity of political culture (the public's attention to politics, the values of democracy, behaviors towards policies, etc.) In modern European society created by bourgeois democracy, the people increasingly enjoy more freedom, equality, justice and are given more opportunities to participate in the political process Europe has been promoting unification with the aim of creating a new Europe which is more powerful, stable and developed In this process, there are exchanges of cultural values in addition to the economic-political collaboration This process is advantageous due to similarities in the political regime, religion, ethnicity, culture, etc However, the differences such as ideological differences did exist in the past The most common feature of European countries is the process of spreading their culture, politics and political culture to the rest the world In very early days, Western countries already perceived the importance of these intangible factors By various measures which were flexible and voluntary or even oppressive, their political culture infiltrated into the building and completion of other countries‘ systems, especially in Asia and Southeast Asia, which is a typical example France and the Soviet Union were the two completely different actors with somehow contradictory political cultures having certain impacts on current political cultures of Asian countries The wider and deeper the process of globalization is, the more limited the impacts of European political culture as a single country are, but the more developed Europe as a credible economic, political and social organization is While France left its mark on the colonies and the Soviet Union had influence on the socialist countries, nowadays the political 89 culture of integration of the EU community is a successful experience for ASEAN It is a process of exchanging and learning from the outstanding values to select the appropriate achievements for a new organization The coming of the West did not change the traditional political culture of Vietnam Its political culture instead cleverly and flexibly combined the selective internal and external values which were suitable to each phase of development Therefore, the appearance of Western political culture in Vietnam in different stages all served the common goal of independence and freedom for Vietnamese nation The French political culture brought about a deeper understanding of the concept of freedom and nation whereas the Soviet Union‘s political culture showed to Vietnam a path consistent with the goal of independence and later French political culture was used to reaffirm the basic rights to freedom of the people It was clearly shown in the 1945 Declaration of Independence and the 1946 Constitution It was such a smart application of Vietnamese political culture The innovation of Vietnam in 1986 again asserted the active adjustment to develop in face of big historical changes Compared to the collapse of socialist system in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the success of innovation in Vietnam has proved the soundness of Marxist-Leninist theories as well as the flexible reaction of Vietnamese political culture The traditional characteristics of Vietnam political culture, such as patriotism or community spirit, have always been preserved and developed Building advanced and modern Vietnam political culture requires the inheritance of the good traditional political cultural values collected through thousands of years of building and defending the country and the outstanding political cultural values of other countries in the world on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh‘s ideology as the ideological compass for actions To accomplish this goal, it is necessary to affirm the sustainable socialist nature and recruit qualified political leaders and personnel, especially socialist elite Improving the level of the entire population and attracting the masses into political activities is an urgent demand in the long-term development strategy Thus, the quality of party members also needs to be improved in all units and in the entire society In short, modern Vietnamese political culture is a process of perfecting the rule-of-law state, enhancing democracy and improving the role of the people in political activities The international integration of Vietnam has never been as strong as now and has brought about tremendous efficiencies in the recent time It urges Vietnam, at the same time, to solve the problems arising from the growth process and maintain good relationships with other 90 countries on the basis of mutual interest With its inherent creativity, Vietnam‘s political 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Society, 1997 19: 369, SAGE Publications 45 Tismaneanu Vladimir (1995), Political Culture and Civil Society in Russia and the New States of Eurasia, M E Sharpe, Inc., New York 46 Tucker Robert C., Culture, Political Culture, and Communist Society, Political Science Quarterly, Vol 88, No (Jun., 1973), pp 173-190, The Academy of Political Science 47 Tucker Robert C (1987), Political Culture and Leadership in Soviet Russia: from Lenin to Gorbachev, Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books 48 Wang Zheng Jiang (2002), Comparative Study on the Authority of Modern Political Parties, Shanghai 49 Welch Stephen (1993), The Concept of Political Culture, New York, N.Y.: St Martin's Press in association with St Antony's College, Oxford Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan 50 Zhenghuan Zhou (1999), The Liberal Concept of Rights, Political Culture, and Democratic Change in China, Mich: Bell & Howell, 2000 95 ... studying and working in international relations Besides, it will become one of the new researches on Vietnamese political culture and external impacts on its formation and development as well as its. .. formation process and development of political culture in the world, especially European political culture Understanding the European political culture is a good lesson for Vietnam to establish and. .. on the European political culture in general and political culture of European countries in particular (iii) Documents on Vietnamese political culture as well as the orientation of building political