The paper examines the correct analytical positioning of foreign donors’ aid support for civil society in Cambodia and Vietnam. It is argued that references to the ‘state’ should include political activities (by donors) in order to better understand the effects of the different donors’ strategies in the two countries. By discussing the question of sovereignty, the paper argues that the weakness of civil society in Vietnam is linked to the weakness of state agency, and vice versa in Cambodia. The paper concludes that donors’ analyses should have taken (and in Vietnam did not take) fuller account of the positive effects of support for civil society upon state strength.
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Stefan de Vylder and Adam Fforde, From Plan to Market: The Economic Transition in Vietnam (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996).
John Dunn, The Cunning of Unreason: Making Sense of Politics (New York: Basic Books, 2000), p. 69.
Steven Lukes, Power. A Radical View. The Original Text with Two Major New Chapters (Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
Adam Fforde, ‘Vietnam in 2003: the road to un-governability?’ Asian Survey, Vol. 44, No. 1 (January/February 2004), pp. 121–129; Adam Fforde, ‘Vietnam in 2004: popular authority seeking power’, Asian Survey, Vol. 45, No. 1 (January/February 2005), pp. 146–152; Adam Fforde, ‘Vietnam in 2011: questions of domestic sovereignty’, Asian Survey, Vol. 52, No. 1 (2012), pp. 176–185.
Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), p. 25.
A.B. Woodside, Lost Modernities: China, Vietnam, Korea, and the Hazards of World History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).
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The paper examines the correct analytical positioning of foreign donors’ aid support for civil society in Cambodia and Vietnam. It is argued that references to the ‘state’ should include political activities (by donors) in order to better understand the effects of the different donors’ strategies in the two countries. By discussing the question of sovereignty, the paper argues that the weakness of civil society in Vietnam is linked to the weakness of state agency, and vice versa in Cambodia. The paper concludes that donors’ analyses should have taken (and in Vietnam did not take) fuller account of the positive effects of support for civil society upon state strength.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 170 | 33 | 7 |
Full Text Views | 74 | 2 | 2 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 24 | 7 | 4 |