Law and Practice of Citizens’ Participation in Local Governance in Vietnam

Abstract

Local governance is fundamentally characterized by the interaction between government agencies and people in the process of local social management; in which, people are mobilized to participate, actively participate in government management activities within the scope of the law. In this article, the author focuses on analyzing the aspect of people's participation in local governance activities in Vietnam according to current law: Direct participation; indirect participation. Research results show that people participate directly and indirectly in local government management activities, but are limited to the level of direct participation; have the right to self-decide on local issues in a narrow scope: Mainly the content of self-decision on infrastructure construction, public welfare works contributed by themselves; self-construction of programs, projects and proposals for government research and implementation has not been clearly demonstrated. From that practice, the author discusses the issue of continuing to research innovation in local governance in Vietnam to promote the positivity and proactiveness of the people and the effectiveness of the government in mobilizing resources for local development.