The impact of Confucian values in Vietnam currently

As discussed in above section, for a long time, Vietnam was under the influence of a Confucian pillar and Confucianism principles were regarded as formal rules in governing society. Hence, various features of Confucianism, which are commonly called Confucian values, may still have effects on the legal system and political institution in Vietnam presently.

What constitute Confucian values in society today? How do such values influence the transition to the rule of law in Vietnam? Recent scholarship has proposed a variety of elements that might constitute Confucian values in Vietnamese society today. For instance, in the view of de Bary (1998) and Hager (2000), respect for superior and nobleman is the most important character of Confucianism. Shin and Dalton (2004) see appreciation for hierarchy and concern for collective well being as two key features of Confucian values. According to Ornatowski (1996), Confucian values will refer to: (i) a high public regard for education and the widespread use of meritocratic entrance exams for placing talent in society; (ii) an emphasis on mutual obligations between superior and inferior within social organizations based upon actual or quasi-family ties, where the prime virtue of the superior is benevolence and of the inferior is loyalty; and (iii) an overall stress on “social harmony” rather than individualism. As De Bary (1998) points out, the aforementioned Confucian values have both positive and negative aspects. Some of these aspects will be discussed in detail below.

Hierarchical and authoritative order

As mentioned earlier, under Confucian pillar, the king constituted the state to govern society under the mandate of Heaven. The king held absolute power and competence while ordinary people had to obey king’s orders as an unconditional obligation. Consequently, in historical political arrangements of many East Asian countries, there was no notion of separation of powers and the authorities (the King or Mandarin) could execute all state’s powers, including creating laws and executing them by themselves. That is why in the feudal legal system of

Vietnam, there was the dominance of administrative rules made by mandarins. For example, Haines (1984, p. 309) claimed that law made by the mandarins became “natural law” for all people of Vietnam in the time of the Le dynasty. Hence, the conception of pluralism or the doctrine of separation of powers is difficult to be accepted in Vietnam presently. A similar finding in Flanagan and Lee (2000) also suggests that authoritarian values in Japan and Korea have been detrimental to democratic orientations. However, with the case of Singapore discussed in chapter III, authority and hierarchy might facilitate the development of modern economic structures although they would be less consistent with democratic politics.

Notably, there is an inherent contradiction of Confucianism in terms of hierarchical order. On the one hand, Confucianism aims at promoting a hierarchical social order, on the other hand, it stresses the importance of people as the basis of the state. This situation leads to what is called “the trouble of Confucianism” (see de Bary, 1998). Creel (1960) also argues that some aspects of Confucianism are compatible with democracy, specifically its instruction to political leaders to maximize the wealth and happiness of the people, a preference for persuasion rather than force. For example, following the view of Mentius (371-289 BC), the rulers should respect the people’s desires, love what the people love, and hate what the people hate. When asked who plays the most important role in society, he replied: first come the people, then comes the state, and the king is negligible. In this sense, the state belongs to everyone, which is a notion of democracy. For the case of Vietnam, in the feudal ages, only scholars of Confucianism - but not of Buddhism and Taoism - could practice certain kinds of liberal protests and criticism against the king. This aspect plays a very positive role in the current political and institutional reform in Vietnam. Since the CPV holds the sole leading role in Vietnamese state and society, there are no opposition groups. For such reason, the CPV and Vietnamese government may not be pressured by opposition parties in promoting the rule of law reform as well as transformation to market economy. However, the protest and criticism of government policies among individuals in society, especially among intellectuals can be seen as alternatives.

Confucian ethics and law

In above section, I explained that Confucianism argued that laws had no supremacy in society, whereas innumerable Confucian ethical norms and principles played a decisive role.

According to Modde and Morris (1967), Confucians regard laws as no better than the men who create and execute them. The moral training of the ruler and his officials counts for more than the devising of a clever legal machinery. On the one hand, this means that the King and

his mandarins should govern society mainly by setting their moral examples rather than laws or punishments, which have only a subordinate role. On the other hand, this means that the King and officials should be educated in order to become a moral example. Therefore, self-cultivation was expected to take the place of laws and punishments as a means to rule society.

Crime was seen as symptomatic of an absence of virtue that produces conflict. In Vietnam, many leading scholars of Vietnamese Confucians promoted the use of “li” that may be understood as a correct performance of all kind of moral and religious ritual to govern a country (Pham Duy Nghia 2002). Such a system imposes on the individual and the state the responsibility of bringing all members of society to a condition of self-imposed moral rectitude in which behavior is defined in terms of collective, rather than individual good. On the contrary with the West, where law is the guarantee of rights that all may claim, in Vietnam the law is concerned with duties that all must fulfill.

In the history of Vietnam, and even today, moral norms (“li”) and customary rules heavily influence the legal system. These rules may positively supplement and support formal law, but many of them can challenge and contradict it (Pham Duy Nghia 2003). Indeed, Vietnamese people still follow the ethical rules and norms despite the fact that many formal rules (e.g.: laws and under-law regulations) have been recently passed in Vietnam. Chow (2003) also finds a similar situation in China where the legal behaviour of the people follows a historical and cultural tradition. Moreover, he supposes that such behaviour can hardly be affected simply by changes in formal institutions such as the enactment of new laws, and the introduction of new legislative procedures, new courts and new enforcement systems.

Strikingly, the Confucian governance did not create an independent judicial administration. In Vietnamese history, there has not been any kind of court system and judges which were independent and separate from the administrative system. Therefore, if a dispute among people arose, they went to an official who decided the case mainly based on his knowledge of Confucian ethics and custom in the region. It is worth noting that there was also a mechanism of solving disputes between officials and the people. Frequently, ordinary people would submit their complaints against officials to higher officials. In some particular cases involving important officials or the royal family, even the king himself held hearings and gave judgments. Such dispute solving mechanism still exists in the legal institutions of Vietnam today. For instance, although Vietnam established an administrative court in 1998, many Vietnamese people prefer solving their disputes at administrative organs to bringing their claims to court.

Social harmony

Regarding the aim of governance, Confucian values stress the importance of “social harmony”. This concept means that the welfare of social organism as a whole depends upon the harmonious cooperation among all of its units and of the individuals who comprise these units. In other words, society should be like a magnified family, the members of which, though differing in their status and functions, all work in harmony for the common good (Bodde 1953, p. 45-47). Thus, the Confucian concept of social harmony promotes a peaceful world in which everyone knows their rights and obligations and does effortfully to accomplish them.

By promoting social harmony, Confucius and his students hoped to create a society without conflict between the governing and the governed. To some extent, this leads to a peaceful, well-being and prosperous society. Furthermore, it increases personal ties and belief among people, which are bases for other collective activities both in economic and political life. For example, Fukuyama (1995) believes personal trust to be extremely important in a market economy. In the political field, Putnam (1993) and Voigt (2003) assume that the levels of personal trust may influence the degree to which democracy is sustainable. The idea behind this presumption is that the degree of democracy, especially pluralist democracy, depends upon the tendency to act cooperatively which in turn is proxied by the amount of trust people have in each other. According to Putnam (1993), high levels of cooperation, trust, and reciprocity characterize a high degree of democracy in northern Italy. In contrast, defection, distrust, and opportunism epitomize the lower level of democracy in southern Italy. Notably, these differences result in the higher economic development in the north than in the south of Italy.

Nevertheless, Putnam (1993) also supposes that hierarchical organizations such as the Catholic Church are obstructive to the emergence of trust and reciprocal cooperation.

Similarly, La Porta et al. (1997) find that countries with more dominant hierarchical religions have lower rates of participation in civic activities and professional associations which are conducive to pluralist democracy. As I have already mentioned, Confucianism promotes a social order based on hierarchy which undermines personal trust, thus Confucian value of harmony has a converse effect in practice. On the one hand, it strengthens personal trust in closed hierarchical organizations such as: family and clan, commercial firm, village etc, on the other hand, it hampers personal trust among members of different organizations in society.

Hence, it can be argued that, under the ideal of Confucian social harmony, the level of personal trust in society as a whole is indeed low.

To summary, Confucianism was introduced very early and had a long development history in Vietnam. Despite the rise and fall of Confucianism in Vietnam, Confucian values have not disappeared in Vietnam, but have developed into informal institutions. Social order, Confucian ethics and social harmony are three main features of Confucian values significantly influencing political and institutional reforms in Vietnam today.