An analysis of legal framework for policy advocacy in vietnam with reference to developed countries experiences

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY NGUYEN HOANG BAO TRAM AN ANALYSIS OF LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY IN VIETNAM WITH REFERENCE TO DEVELOPED COUNTRIES' EXPERIENCES MASTER'S THESIS VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY NGUYEN HOANG BAO TRAM AN ANALYSIS OF LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY IN VIETNAM WITH REFERENCE TO DEVELOPED COUNTRIES' EXPERIENCES MAJOR: PUBLIC POLICY CODE: 8340402.01 RESEARCH SUPERVISOR: Dr DANG QUANG VINH Hanoi, 2021 COMMITMENT I hereby declare that this is my own research work The data and research results in the thesis are honest, have clear origins and are fully cited in accordance with regulations ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would want to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Vinh, for his unwavering support Despite his busy schedule, he constantly makes an effort to assist me and provide me with useful information Dr Vinh helped me better comprehend my research topic and suggested which argument I should include in this thesis to strengthen my work This thesis cannot be completed without his support Next, I'd want to convey my gratefulness to Dr Thuy Anh and Dr Hoang Linh for their insightful comments and mental support at VJU Although it was quite unfortunate when I could not go to Japan during the internship, my teachers helped and created conditions for me to have the best learning opportunities and experiences during my internship In addition, I'd want to express my gratitude to all of the teachers at VJU, as well as our program assistant, Mrs Huong, for always doing her best assisting me with the procedure for this thesis and other projects Last but not least, there are my loved ones — everyone who has supported me throughout this thesis, from the beginning to the end Thank you for always being there for me and encouraging me TABLE OF CONTENT ABBREVIATION i INTRODUCTION 1 Overview: Research objectives and questions 3 Research scope Methodology Research structure CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ON PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY 1.1 Literature review 1.2 Public policy advocacy concept and basis 11 1.3 Purpose of public policy advocacy 14 1.4 The Necessity of Legal framework for Public Policy Advocacy 16 CHAPTER 2: PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY IN FRANCE AND IN THE US 21 2.1 Laws on advocacy in the US 23 2.2 Laws on advocacy in France 25 2.3 Some comments about the US and France‘s legal framework 29 CHAPTER 3: PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY IN VIETNAM 33 3.1 Concept of advocacy for public policy in Vietnam 33 3.2 Expression of public policy advocacy in Vietnam 35 3.2.1 Regulations related to advocacy in Vietnam 35 3.2.2 Advocate for public policies by domestic and foreign actors in Vietnam 37 3.2.3 Characteristics of public policy advocacy in Vietnam currently 47 3.2.4 Trends of public policy advocacy in Vietnam 48 3.2.5 Challenges in policy advocacy framework development in Vietnam in the coming time 51 CHAPTER 4: SOME RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY IN VIETNAM 53 Recommendation for state agencies 55 CONCLUSION 57 REFERENCES 59 i ABBREVIATION EU: European Union NGOs: Non-Governmental Organizations VASEP: Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers VCCI: Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry VINASA: Vietnam Software and IT Services Association VNGO: Vietnamese Non-Governmental Organization VSA: Vietnam Steel Association WTO: World Trade Organization i INTRODUCTION Overview: Most of States have the common task of studying, assessing the actual situation, comparing with the current laws and articles of the Constitution, making the correct arguments to decide the solution for the urgent and important issues that directly affect the security and development of a country Because of their important nature, laws often impose strict requirements, which can become barriers that make it difficult for citizens to state their views and thoughts with government agencies State officials contribute to the development of reasonable and effective regulations and decisions, ensuring the democracy of society In order to minimize the appearance of such barriers between state agencies and citizens of the country, the public policy advocacy mechanism is established and developed Up to now, public policy advocacy has become popular in many countries and has increasingly demonstrated its objective need in political life in general, especially in the policy process of many countries Generally, advocacy is an activity carried out by an individual or organization to persuade agencies to formulate and decide on the need to enact or modify a policy for their own benefit or for the community or society Although in addition to positive impacts, public policy advocacy also brings many negative impacts, but no one can deny the fact that public policy advocacy is increasingly becoming an objective indispensable need in political life It is said that public policy advocacy in Vietnam is not really taking place properly as in other countries around the world, because in Vietnam, the Communist Party is the only party in power, most of the major decisions are made by the Party (Pham & Vu, 2013) The National Assembly with nearly 80% of the Communist Party members is the place to institutionalize the Party's policy decisions Public policy advocacy in Vietnam is advocacy in the "Party lobby", unlike in developed countries, taking place in the "lobby" of the Parliament In contemporary international politics, there exist many types of political institutions, many models of organization of power, many different models of policy processes and therefore, the impact of policy advocacy on regulation in different countries is not entirely the same But the common point is that in countries where advocacy is involved in the public policy process and there is a legal framework for this activity, public policy-making is fundamentally more open, information related to public policy is more revealed and the quality of public policy is higher because policy decisions are often more correct on the basis of multi-dimensional information and have been accessed and analyzed in many dimensions In order to minimize the appearance of barriers between the State and citizens in the process of exercising public power, making general decisions, the public policy advocacy mechanism is formed and developed Vietnam is in the process of developing, the need to advocate for public policies is indispensable In Vietnam, although at a limited level in both theory and practical political life, policy advocacy also exists and is increasingly being recognized Moreover, although the current public policies in Vietnam have basically followed and solved the problems posed in social life, it must be admitted that there are still many limitations and shortcomings in the main process of public policy as well as the quality of public policy making in our country That shows the inevitable nature of the research to clarify the role of the public sector in some developed capitalist countries to find out the values that can be referenced for Vietnam Therefore, research and reference to experiences from developed countries are indispensable requirements According to John Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Studies, 2011), which the process of public policy advocacy includes the following steps: 1.Analysis of policy issues; Formulating policy advocacy strategy; Build alliances, deliver policy advocacy messages; Coordinate policy advocacy action; Evaluation of campaign results; Track policy results This thesis focuses on systemizing and clarifies the basic issues of public policy advocacy such as the concept of public policy advocacy, the purpose and the need for public policy advocacy and public policy advocacy framework, from there, giving general assessments of public policy advocacy, surveying the current status of this activity in Vietnam (analyze some specific cases), find out problems in advocacy activities in Vietnam At the same time, it offers some suggestions to solve the problem from developed countries‘ experience for public policy advocacy in Vietnam Research objectives and questions This research clarifies the basic issues of public policy advocacy and the reason why legal framework for public policy advocacy is necessary The thesis is also researching on the current state of public policy advocacy in the US, and France in terms of legal aspects of policy advocacy as well as giving general assessments of public policy advocacy in Vietnam From that point the author will offer some suggestions for public policy advocacy in Vietnam Research questions: - Is public policy advocacy indispensable and if so, how should the State behave to promote positive effect and controlling its negative influence of policy advocacy? - With the specific characteristics of political institutions and policy process, can Vietnam learn from developed countries experience in building a legal framework and responding to public policy advocacy, and which experience? Research scope The thesis only focuses on policy advocacy activities in the US and France At the same time, the thesis also studies the concept and expression of policy advocacy in Vietnam today so that on the basis of comments drawn from policy advocacy in the US, and France, find suggestions for Vietnam Methodology Qualitative: This study uses inductive method on the information, research and analysis of Party documents and State laws to clarify some issues related to public policy advocacy and at the same time, using practical analysis and evaluation to see some signs showing the trend of policy advocacy in Vietnam Themes, patterns interpretation on manifestations of policy advocacy in practice, based on specific expressions, will be generalized to draw judgments about policy advocacy in Vietnam The comparative approach is nested within the discussion of the manifestations of advocacy in the political situation realities of each country, explaining the similarities and differences in more detail to make convincing and appropriate reviews Research structure In addition to the introduction, conclusion, list of references, the thesis has chapters and 10 sections Denegre, etc., to mobilize officials of the two US chambers to support them in the Vietnam dumping case Thus, it can be seen that Vietnamese people know about policy advocacy through the experience gained in the lawsuits about product names for basa fish, lawsuits on dumping of catfish products, shrimp into the US market, dumping leather shoes into the EU market, lobbying the US Congress for permanent normal trade status (PNTR) as well as Vietnam's accession to the WTO According to statistics of the VASEP, it has spent about 260,000 USD for policy advocacy activities in dumping lawsuits on shrimp, fish in the US Other associations such as the Association of Footwear, Textile, and Steel, etc., also face anti-dumping lawsuits from other countries Many argue that Vietnam must invest more in advocacy activities if it wants to business smoothly in other countries (Anh, 2000) 3.2.3 Characteristics of public policy advocacy in Vietnam currently Firstly, the perception and awareness of policy advocacy in Vietnam is currently very limited Even because it is not officially mentioned in the state policies and legal documents, in many cases it is still a sensitive concept and people have a mentality to avoid and dare not mention directly but look for other expressions to achieve the goal Second, Vietnam still lacks regulations on public policy advocacy The provisions as mentioned above are mostly indirectly related to policy advocacy but not specify directly and specifically the contents related to public policy advocacy When studying the policy advocacy regulations of France, the US as well as the world, it is clear that each country now chooses different models of policy advocacy adjustment, but regardless of system, the presence Legal documents like these are also needed This limitation is also a big barrier for public policy advocacy activities in Vietnam‘s practice because we lack a truly transparent environment to promote positive effects and negative effects of Policy advocacy activities are an objective need of many groups of subjects in the society Third, in Vietnam, there are quite clear practice of policy advocacy with both aspects: Vietnam actively uses policy advocacy as a method when participating in the 47 international playing field; and manifestations of policy advocacy in the political processes and policies in our country However, due to the lack of a legal framework for this activity, most efforts to influence policy through advocacy in Vietnam are still scattered, unsystematic Fourth, public policy advocacy in Vietnam is still facing great difficulties and challenges to assert its need for objectivity as well as to ensure its activeness The biggest challenge is that Vietnam does not have the necessary economic, political, cultural and social bases like developed capitalist countries for policy advocacy to form and develop In addition, the limitations on the management capacity of state agencies also lead to inappropriate or harsh behavior with policy advocacy In addition, in terms of organizational techniques, our state apparatus is still inadequate and incomplete, which may cause the opportunity for negative manifestations of policy advocacy to manifest and spread 3.2.4 Trends of public policy advocacy in Vietnam It can be seen that the need for policy advocacy in the current socio-economic conditions is objective and has begun to appear in Vietnam However, the question is how policy advocacy will evolve in the coming years From the analysis and comments on the manifestations and conditions for policy advocacy in Vietnam, it is possible to predict the development trend of this activity in the coming time as follows: First, the debate around whether or not to legislate public policy advocacy in Vietnam, which has been going on in the past time, will continue to become a more discussed topic in the coming time Despite the efforts of stakeholders, the possibility of legalizing public policy advocacy in Vietnam cannot be realized for at least the next years The reason for this prediction is because the need for policy advocacy of actors in practical political life is objective, but in the current context of Vietnam, we still lack the basic conditions for policy advocacy to be fully developed Moreover, looking at the world, many developed countries not have regulations on policy advocacy, and there is no really strong evidence for having legalization of policy advocacy will this activity develop and vice versa Even in the case of Russia, 48 although this issue is brought up many times on the agenda, up to this point there is no official law for policy advocacy in Russia Many countries are considered to be developed not only because of their economic achievements and indicators of ecological environment, social security, but also the high level of people's participation in political life like the Nordic countries, there are also almost no regulations on policy advocacy Most Asian countries, including China, Korea, and Japan, so far have not had a policy on advocacy, nor they see the possibility of this in the near future Second, although there is no law on policy advocacy, nor does it recognize public policy advocacy as a necessary element to implement democracy in policy in Vietnam, the practice of public policy advocacy include: both the manifestations of the underground movement of domestic and foreign actors in Vietnam as well as the demand for policy advocacy of Vietnamese actors in the international playing field will continue to take place, providing additional evidence supports the debate about whether or not to acknowledge public policy advocacy in Vietnam Globalization and international integration are opening up opportunities but also putting Vietnam in front of really great challenges, requiring our actors to rethink and change their development strategies to develop In particular, this is the time when Vietnam officially has to fulfill many of the commitments that we have signed as a member, which allows us to predict that, with such a vibrant environment: the need and ability of actors to conduct public policy advocacy in Vietnam is very high In Southeast Asia alone, governments from Cambodia or Myanmar to more developed countries all have policy advocacy activities and hire international policy advocators, except for Vietnam and Laos That requires us to think more seriously about the use of policy advocacy as a mean in the integration process, especially in the field of trade, knowing and understanding the rules of the game is an important factor in determining success Third, the monitoring of underground policy advocacy activities between actors and authorities in Vietnam in the coming time will be more tightly controlled from the pressure from society More specifically, although not officially recognized, policy advocacy activities still take place in the country, conducted by both Vietnamese and 49 foreign actors in Vietnam It is worth mentioning that these advocacy activities have more or less revealed in the negative side of policy advocacy, corruption, bribery, etc., have been confirmed to be real, and worse, it has been causing huge consequences for the country, including problems of security and order, ecological environment and basically many consequences are irreparable, and the last person to suffer is the State and the people of Vietnam In summary, people and public opinion in Vietnam have begun to pay more attention to public policy advocacy but not with goodwill, but on the contrary, and there have been community-level efforts to combat these black lobbying, dirty campaigning, profiteering from policies Therefore, it can be predicted that policy advocacy activities in Vietnam in the coming time, if any, will also practice more in its positive side when advocating to create a more favorable and appropriate environment for associations, businesses to operate and develop, but will limit its negative aspects, at least compared to the past years In other words, along with the general trend of the world, informal policy advocacy activities are likely to soon be replaced by policy advocacy activities of economic associations A new type of service needs to be born soon, that is, companies specializing in advocacy activities, these companies will act as a bridge between economic associations and public authorities in particular and interest groups in general However, this trend may be even further into the future In short, policy advocacy in Vietnam has appeared as an objective need, but the issue of whether this has been legalized or not is still controversial and will continue to be debated in the near future This is because the decision to admit or not to this in politics is not at all simple for countries, even for the United States, which is considered a leader of policy advocacy in the world From the very beginning, Americans also faced difficulties and challenges when resolving the conflict between the legitimate interests of campaigners and the risk of corruption and bribing officials when acknowledging this institution Therefore, it is necessary to continue researching and surveying policy practices and public policy advocacy in Vietnam, reference to the experiences of countries around the world is really necessary and should be encouraged in the coming years both because of its theoretical and practical significance 50 3.2.5 Challenges in policy advocacy framework development in Vietnam in the coming time First, by the Constitution and Laws Vietnam is a state of the people, the people elect their representative bodies, the National Assembly and the People's Councils at all levels In principle, those representative agencies have full representatives of all classes in society (which is approved by consultation to decide the representative structure), so there is no reason for a collective/ individuals representing a certain group influence the development of policies/laws of these representative agencies It will break the inherent representation structure Although the Constitutional foundation recognizes the people's right to participate in political life and decisionmaking processes of state agencies, especially the right to require the people's representatives to listen and convey opinions, people's thoughts and aspirations towards policies and laws, but the implementation is still quite modest and limited There are also times when associations, organizations and individuals meet with competent people to request a review of policies and regulations, etc., but this is not a true lobbying activity The basis of the lobby is conflicting interests, based on pluralism The purpose of lobbying is for economic gain And to it must be with money In Vietnam, interests are unified, so lobbying in the legislature does not exist Second, the lack of clarity of the legal system in the context of the limited governance capacity of the state and the low level of publicity and transparency of the state (Đinh, 2019) It is extremely important to properly analyze the interests of stakeholders in policy advocacy activities, but it is not at all simple, especially in the current situation of Vietnam Although we have been trying to make decisions transparent since 2004, there is still a lot of work to be done In addition, due to the overlap between the actors involved in the policy process, it is difficult to attribute the responsibility of the parties involved in this process, especially when there are inadequacies or failures in the policy process, policies that damage social life lead to our lack of an open and transparent environment in which active public policy advocacy can develop In addition, the limitations of the state's governance capacity together with the low level of publicity and transparency in state activities are a major barrier to active public policy advocacy 51 Third, this issue may encounter objections from firms Lobbying activities in Vietnam are active in large to small businesses, and to regulate this activity - according to enterprises, it is always there is an implicit law When lobbying state officials in various positions for each investment activity of the corporation, there is always a minimum level; that is, if you want to invest, you just need to reach the minimum level at different stages That is true for small and medium businesses; however, it is impossible to estimate the cost of lobbying for large corporations with significant projects, and most of the large corporations create an external affairs department to manage projects and have someone in charge of advocacy activity, if the cases are more difficult or require a higher relationship then the firm president or general director will be the person to directly contact state‘s officials SMEs will only lobby to a certain extent because they tend not to increase their lobbying spending so as not to ―increase market prices‖ That is an implicit rule to follow When asked if they support the legalization of lobbying for example applying of lobbying laws in the United States such as the fact that lobbyists must register with Congress or disclose their clients, the contact, etc., most businesses answer no Since they believe that adapting to a new regulation requires a significant amount of time and resources on the part of the company, they expect that this will cause a delay in their investment activities Furthermore, they fear that publicizing consumers or relationships will have an impact on the interests of businesses, particularly large businesses Large business owners say they will even lobby to prevent the legalization of lobbying 52 CHAPTER 4: SOME RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY IN VIETNAM Having laws on policy advocacy will be essential to bring the public's and interest groups' participation in policy-making and law-making into the framework, while limiting their uncontrollable negative impacts on policy makers in the government This Act will also be an additional legal instrument, helping to further improve Vietnam's legal framework on anti-corruption Building and completing this regulation is quite difficult and complicated in the current context, but it is really necessary to clearly express the state's position on policy advocacy, thereby taking appropriate action Therefore, it is necessary to prioritize all efforts to soon realize this goal When there is an official regulation on policy advocacy, it also means that the official advocacy activity is recognized as an activity that needs to be managed In other words, it demonstrates the ability and determination to face the fundamental problems in policy advocacy practice, which are always complex and volatile In the current conditions of Vietnam, the National Assembly should accept policy advocacy in legislative activities and decide on important issues of the country However, the problem is that the legislative process and deciding on important issues of the country include many processes and procedures conducted by state agencies Accordingly, it must be recognized that policy advocacy at the very beginning of the legislative process is legal initiatives The next stages of the legislative process are putting in the program of making laws and ordinances, drafting, examining, commenting and reviewing, and approving the bill, all of which have the presence of policy advocacy The legal regulations on policy advocacy will clearly stipulate the principles, contents and forms of policy advocacy; responsibility of relevant agencies, of the population, business community, researchers, etc., in carrying out policy advocacy tasks This provision can be implemented through the amendment and supplementation of the Law on the Promulgation of Legal Documents or through a Government Decree on this issue 53 After studying about the law on advocacy in the US and France, some key experiences can be drawn for building a legal framework for policy advocacy in Vietnam Policy advocating is regulated by the government in order to avoid unethical behavior by making lobbyists' acts more transparent to the general public:  The government will recognize the importance of lobbyists in the policymaking process;  Nevertheless, if they employ unethical techniques to control policy, it will fail to reflect the needs of the people;  The government has to establish measures in order to ensure that lobbyists conduct their business legally One example is a rule prohibiting lobbyists from using corruption to influence the implementation of their version of a policy The government should keep track of lobbyists in a database Lobbyists are responsible for ensuring that information in the register is accurate and up to date, as well as alerting the relevant registration agency of any changes to their registration The frequency with which re-registration occurs will vary according on the jurisdiction (and possibly the sort of lobbyist) A lobbyist must register (with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House) and then file semi-annual reports in the United States Because the major goal of a lobbyist registry is to provide transparency about who is attempting to influence public authorities, it should be publicly available and userfriendly In this aspect, the French system is admirable: it provides free online access to a searchable database of registers, allowing individuals to conduct extensive searches of who is lobbying and whose officials they are lobbying Lobbying restrictions must be efficient in order to increase public confidence in the democratic functioning of government authority To achieve this, legal laws should include effective, proportionate, and deterrent punishments, whether criminal or noncriminal Fines, removal from the registry and/or loss of privileged access, and imprisonment are the most typical sanctions 54 The national legal framework for fighting corruption and strengthening integrity emphasizes the need for national standards in the public sector, which provides public officials with instruction and a mandatory cooling-off period Recommendation for state agencies Recognizing that advocacy is a profession means that there must be an agency to manage the registration of lobbying as well as to manage lobbying activities This agency must have tasks and powers such as receiving registrations and reports of policy campaigners; review and evaluate the accuracy, reliability as well as timeliness of the registrations and reports of the advocates; inspect the implementation of the law on policy advocacy The regulation on public policy advocacy compels full disclosure of advocacy expenditures, including who is lobbied and which bills are of interest Certain actions, such as giving legislators gifts and paying lobbyists commissions for successful lobbying, are prohibited by state governments To avoid charges of currying favor with legislators, certain acts are outlawed Having stringent limits on the amount of money lobbyists can spend lobbying legislators or the value of gifts legislators can accept from lobbyists Enact legislation prohibiting legislators from lobbying the government shortly after leaving office Members of the National Assembly are prohibited from lobbying for a year after leaving office Former ministers must wait the same amount of time after leaving their posts before lobbying the department they previously led These regulations are intended to prevent former legislators from leveraging their government contacts to gain an advantage in lobbying Government have various levels of transparency when it comes to the amount of money spent on lobbying The logic here is that policy makers will be hesitant to take funds from questionable sources Another benefit of this law is that they promote transparency Similar to sanctions for handling violations of other branches of law, violations of the law on lobbying may be subject to disciplinary action, administrative handling, compensation for damage or criminal prosecution depending on the law and the 55 seriousness of the violation The other point here is that lobbying involves a lot of issues of interests and money, so following the general trend of other countries, the legal framework on sanctions to handle violations in Vietnam should vary penalties for violating the law Lobbyists and, in some situations, government officials, can face fines, bans from advocating, and even prison sentences For the strict implementation of the law on policy advocacy, it is necessary to have an inspection and supervision mechanism Accordingly, the agency in charge of policy advocacy is responsible for checking compliance with the law and advocacy The National Assembly, its agencies, the National Assembly delegation and the National Assembly deputies shall, within the ambit of their tasks and powers, supervise the implementation of the law on policy advocacy In summary, the early research and promulgation of documents to adjust the form of proactive policy advocacy of organizations and individuals, in the direction of taking advantage of policy advocacy, is to help the government know concerns and aspirations of the people, in order to adjust policies accordingly 56 CONCLUSION Policy advocacy is a social phenomenon and a legitimate part of a democratic institution Advocacy has become increasingly important and an indispensable part of socio-political activities, especially in parliamentary activities of the Parliament Advocacy is a behind-the-scenes activity, but has a complementary role to Parliament's policy-making process Policy advocacy strongly affects all stages of the decision-making process, the law-making process and the formation of domestic and foreign policies Not only that, in relations with the Parliament and the Government, policy advocacy is also a reflection, supervision and a bridge between interest groups and the people and public agencies However, advocacy also has its downside and is in many cases seen as a threat to democracy Therefore, in order to ensure that the public's right to influence political decisions is made openly, transparently and honestly, the law needs to strictly control lobbying activities As an activity in political life, public policy advocacy is formed and developed in association with certain economic, political, socio-cultural conditions and has a subject, object, purposes, methods and means of implementation according to basic steps Depending on the purpose, motivation and the way the subject conducts advocacy, policy advocacy manifests in its positive or negative aspects Therefore, it is necessary to understand policy advocacy, put it in certain socio-political environments to create conditions that help promote the positive aspects and limit the negative aspects of policy advocacy or policy advocacy or at least have the appropriate behavior for this activity As a country where policy advocacy is considered to be popular and powerful, as well as the country that soon regulates and actively improves the legal system on policy advocacy, the US is considered as a country that advocates for policy advocacy Policy actions are carried out in the most professional and effective manner The professionalism and effectiveness of public policy advocacy in the US is reflected in the lobbying laws itself The analysis of public policy advocacy in France and the US 57 also shows the close links between the legal framework and the professionalism and effectiveness of public policy advocacy, thereby suggesting ideas for Vietnam in the future How to deal with public policy advocacy as an indispensable and objective need of the actors so as not to reduce the development motivation of the actors in social life, while controlling and restraining other aspects negative effects of these activities In Vietnam currently, although the issue of public policy advocacy has not been specified in the law, it has been happening and tends to become more and more popular in the context of our country's deeper and broader integration, which requires perfecting the legal framework for regulation Having a legal framework on policy advocacy is necessary in order to create a legal corridor to include the public's and interest groups' participation in policy-making and law-making, and at the same time limit negative effects on policy makers This is also an additional legal tool, helping to further improve the legal framework on anti-corruption in Vietnam 58 REFERENCES Abney, G (1988) Lobbying by the Insiders: Parallels of State Agencies and Interest Groups Ainsworth, S H (1997) The Role of Legislators in the Determination of Interest Group 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