Four faces of Vietnamese communism: Small countries' institutional choice under hegemony

Since 1975, Vietnamese communism has changed face three times. These freque nt and radical institutional permutations have been unprecedented among com munist countries. This paper argues that hegemonic dependence, domestic eco nomic imperative, and elite idealism are the three main factors that determ ine Vietnam's institutional configuration. Among the three, dependence on a hegemon means the dominance of the developmental model and institutional p references of that hegemon, Only when there is no hegemonic dependence do d omestic economic imperative and elite idealism emerge as the crucial factor s in determining institutional arrangements. Historically there have been f our developmental stages for Vietnam's communist regime: independent social ism (1975-1977), orthodox socialism (1978-1985), glasnost socialism (1986-1 990), and market socialism (1991-now). Among the four stages, orthodox soci alism and glasnost socialism are the direct result of Hanoi's dependence on Moscow. After examining Vietnam's historical experience, we conclude that small countries' institutional choice under hegemon is extremely limited, b ut they regain latitude when hegemonic dependence is removed. (C) 1998 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.