Offers detailed descriptions of disparities in income, spatial access, gender, ethnicity and statue, addressing their causes and consequencese. It illustrates the changing ways in which people have accumulated wealth, social and cultural capital in Vietnam's move from a socialist to a market-oriented society. Taylor from ANU.

This book illustrates the changing ways in which people have accumulated wealth, social and cultural capital in Vietnam's move from a socialist to a market-oriented society.

Vietnam's economy has been fundamentally changed by the policy reforms implemented in the 1980s to provide an environment that is more conducive for economic growth and social stabilization. The policy reforms have had a tremendous impact on economic activities and on all aspects of social life. The economy is presently moving from a centrally planned system largely based on public ownership to a market-oriented and mixed economy. Social structures and values have changed, and legal, institutional, and administrative systems are gradually changing as well. The reform process gives rise to exciting challenges and opportunities for development. Based largely on Vietnamese sources of data and information, this book presents an analysis of the main features of economic policy reforms in Vietnam, their socioeconomic impact, and several major theoretical and practical problems Vietnam faces on its path to development.

Vietnam, along with China, stands out as a rare success story among transition economics. This authoritative study of the reform process since 1989 pays particular attention to the way the macroeconomics framework can contribute to an environment that encourages human development and helps to reduce poverty. Thus there are chapters on macroeconomics reforms, international trade policies, the role of the state, rural development, education and health, environmental issues and poverty and gender inequality. Although areas of weakness are indicated, emphasis is placed on the success Vietnam has experienced compared to other transition economies. The lessons of both the successes and failures of the reform process for policymakers elsewhere are outlined.

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich Politik - Region: Südasien, Note: keine, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), Veranstaltung: Democratic Peace Theory, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The Bertelsmann Foundation states that Vietnam, much like China, shows the tendency of delinking economic development from the transformation towards more democracy. They stress the fact that the responsible elites avoid “political openness” while aiming at swift transformation towards a market economy. Furthermore, they claim that these developments are “symptomatic” for the region and that their economic success makes this style of polity and politics attractive to others (Bertelsmann Foundation 2008). This typical euro-centrist view of the Asian developing economies has the idea of input-legitimacy at its center. However, the legitimacy of politics and policies in low-income countries is much more dependent on their outcomes in terms of inclusive growth and poverty alleviation. The leading question is therefore: Is Vietnam able to significantly improve the income and consequently, the well-being of the majority of its population, and can its development be a model for the region? This paper explores Vietnam’s record of development, poverty reduction and inequality in comparison to its neighbor states. The following part will examine key policies and underlying reforms that were conductive to pro-poor growth in Vietnam as well as remaining challenges.

This book is one of the first ethnographies written on the life of farmers in rural Southern Vietnam since the economic reform in the 1980s. It investigates how social, economic and political factors affect the farmers’ life in the Mekong Delta in the late socialist era with a particularly focus on the family, which serves as the basic and most significant social unit for the farmers. Dealing with classical anthropological topics of kinship and family, the book examines them as dynamic institutions. With vivid illustrations of the village life, family farming, education of children, jobs outside of farming and everyday politics, it presents new and different pictures of the current Vietnamese family under rapid social changes. The book will contribute to the current ethnographical research in Vietnam and Southeast Asia and also be of particular interest to those working on society and culture in the geographical region from broader disciplines. It will also appeal to readers who are interested in such topics as late socialism, social transformation, and rural development.

This book offers a set of methods, drawing on the tool kit of modern economics, to ascertain what Vietnam's economy would have looked like without reforms and assesses what types of households are likely to gain from the reforms. The book's findings have implications on broader issues of social protection in developing rural economies.