British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

 

BA PDF Symposium 2004: Abstracts

21 April 2004

Dr Martin Gainsborough

Shades of Predatoriness: Contrasting Visions of the Role of the State in Economic Development in Provincial Vietnam

The paper is concerned with the role of the state in economic development at the sub-national level. Although it is increasingly common to encounter bold assertions about the alleged ‘reformist’ credentials of one provincial authority in Vietnam, and elsewhere, compared with another, ranking sub-national governments in terms of degrees of developmentalism versus degrees of predatoriness is in fact very difficult. Instead, what one usually ends up with is data which tends to coalesce around the predatory end of the spectrum in ways which make distinguishing between modes of government difficult. Using data derived from interviews with companies in four Vietnamese provinces, which explored the role of the state in the conduct of their operations, this paper will examine whether it is possible to differentiate between the quality of the local authorities more precisely. To the extent that this is possible, the next question is how one explains variation between sub-national governments although this is probably beyond the scope of this paper.

Martin Gainsborough is Lecturer in South East Asian Politics in the Department of Political Studies, SOAS. Prior to this he held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick. He is author of Changing Political Economy of Vietnam: The Case of Ho Chi Minh City published by Routledge Curzon in 2003. His research interests focus on international political economy, international relations, Communist transition and local politics.