Protests over Land in Vietnam: Rightful Resistance and More

Abstract

From 2008 through 2011 the Vietnamese government received nearly 1.6 million complaints from citizens, mostly about land confiscations and related issues. Frequently people angry over land issues have resorted to public demonstrations. This article compares protests in Vietnam to rightful resistance theory. A predominant pattern for how Vietnamese villagers protest corresponds to that theory. Some Vietnamese demonstrations, however, do not fit that pattern; they are outliers. In terms of why people publicly demonstrate, Vietnamese protests in both the predominant pattern and the outliers are similar to each other but exceed rightful resistance theory by challenge existing laws and asserting rights not officially recognized. Show more