Poster #96 - Navigating Global Politics in Local Policymaking: Strategic Hedging and the Internalization of Governance Norms in Vietnam

• In Event: Friday Poster Reception

Abstract

In an era of global geopolitical volatility, developing nations confront a dual challenge: integrating international governance standards while safeguarding domestic institutional stability. This study analyzes Vietnam’s navigational mechanisms amidst normative contestations, focusing on the strategic employment of Strategic Hedging and Selective Internalization. The research demonstrates that the Vietnamese state does not merely replicate external models but proactively filters international norms to maintain institutional equilibrium while fulfilling its global commitments. This study addresses a critical gap in comparative politics by exploring how strategic rivalry between superpowers influences the internal "normative architecture" of a developing state. The research employs a mixed-methods design, integrating a systematic discourse analysis of pivotal legal frameworks—most notably the Law on the Implementation of Democracy at the Grassroots (2022) to identify the legal modalities of normative adaptation. This qualitative component is augmented by a longitudinal quantitative assessment utilizing a panel dataset from the Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index, covering all 63 provinces of Vietnam for the 2016-2025 period. This timeframe enables rigorous observation of governance trends before and after major international trade milestones and the global pandemic. Utilizing multi-level fixed-effects regression models to control for unobserved local heterogeneity, the findings reveal that international integration functions as a robust "institutional anchor". Specifically, Foreign Direct Investment  from OECD and EVFTA partners exhibits a significant positive correlation with enhanced local transparency and vertical accountability (β=0.124, p<0.01). Furthermore, Digital Transformation emerges as a critical catalyst within the policy process, enabling subnational bureaucracies to reconstitute institutional legitimacy through performance-based feedback loops. This technological advancement reduces transaction costs and bridges the interactive gap between the state and its citizens. By bridging the nexus between global political pressures and local policymaking, this research challenges the "democracy versus autocracy" binary and provides a nuanced analytical framework for governance evolution in transitional states. The findings offer vital implications for policymakers in the Global South on leveraging external "anchors" to drive domestic administrative reforms without sacrificing institutional autonomy.

Authors

• Hanh Phuc Ngo, Academy of Policy and Development, The Ministry of Finance
  Presenting Author

• Quynh Anh Nguyen, University of Dayton
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Gia Bao Mai, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Bao-Ngoc Luu Nguyen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Co-Author