Ha Viet, Quan
Description
This thesis traces the relations between ethnic minority groups
and the Vietnamese state through investigating the case of ethnic
minority cadres. Focussing on high-level ethnic Tai cadres in
Vietnam’s northwest, it explores the extent to which their
performance as state cadres has been shaped by traditional Tai
values, practices and forms of relatedness. It examines the role
of these cadres as brokers between central state and local
spheres and aims to shed...[Show more] light on the nature of the socialist
state in ethnic minority dominated areas.
Given the fact that Vietnam is a single-party-led country,
commonly known for the strength of its state structures, the
Vietnamese state in ethnic minority areas is often supposed to be
powerful and assimilatory. By contrast, ethnic minority groups
are commonly said to be colonised, weak and even voiceless in
their relations with the socialist state of Vietnam. However,
based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with the
members of several Tai cadre networks in northwest Vietnam, my
research challenges these common understandings by shedding light
on the substantial roles of ethnic minority elites in socialist
nation-building, contemporary state governance and the
maintenance of ethnic identity and autonomy.
Exploring a Tai-centric perspective on socialist nation-building
in Vietnam, the thesis examines elite Tai contributions to the
Vietnamese revolution, whose trajectory in the northwest is said
to have been shaped by dynamics, and rivalries characteristic of
the traditional Tai muang. By agentively employing traditional
practices of relatedness in their role as state cadres, northwest
Tai elites in the post-colonial era both facilitated and
domesticated socialist programs such as collectivisation, while
also securing representation for local network members in central
government agencies in Hà Nội. The thesis demonstrates how
contemporary governance in the northwest is enacted flexibly
through a robust form of Tai entourage politics and it reveals
how official development programs are transformed by Tai elites
in conformity with vernacular idioms and practices.
By exploring the influence exerted by these local leaders through
their vernacular practices and networks, my thesis argues that
the Vietnamese state has still to rely greatly on local cadres
and compromise on governance according to different local
practices. The socialist state – especially in the northwest
Tai region – is not a uniform state with a single form of
authority. Instead, the state can be described as a politically
aggregate entity comprised of heterogeneous forms of authority.
The thesis sheds light on the way the Tai-central state
relationship has been reconstituted by the very agents
responsible for implementing central policy in Tai areas. By
exploring the nature and degree of autonomy open to ethnic
minority actors under a state known for its centralising efficacy
and assimilatory bent, this thesis delivers substantial findings
about the multi-ethnic identity of the Vietnamese state.
With regards to public policy, my thesis offers insights into the
complex processes by which ethnic minorities substantively use
governance and the bureaucratic system to drive, amend, modify or
even formulate state policies to achieve their own goals. Thus,
it is meaningful for the central government and policy makers in
Vietnam to recognize vernacular ways of implementing state
policies in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
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