Building the Communist Party of Vietnam in the new era_Photo: DC

1. Theoretical basis

According to K.Marx and F.Engels, the communist party must become the leader of the proletarian revolutionary movement, the combat staff of the proletariat, the pioneer in instilling socialist thought into the proletariat, “In practice, the communists are the most decisive part of the workers’ parties in all countries, the part that has always pushed the movement forward”⁽¹⁾.

The proletariat party must lead the revolutionary movement by political lines, and determine the revolutionary objectives, tasks, and methods. In the struggle, the party must, on the one hand, direct the content of the struggle, forming into a political struggle, and on the other hand, must use the economic struggle as a means and basis for the political struggle to rapidly gain victory.

According to K.Marx and F.Engels, after gaining power, the scientific knowledge of the struggle in the previous stage is not enough, the party organization and each party member must raise themselves up to master theoretical knowledge on construction of the state, exercise of state power, administration, and management of society’s resources. The thought of using the state apparatus and through the state apparatus to lead the revolutionary cause of K.Marx and F.Engels is the theoretical basis for determining the Party’s leadership methods for the state and society.

According to K.Marx and F.Engels, the Party must set out a specific action plan, with appropriate methods, forms, and struggles. When formulating guidelines and policies, general principles must be taken into account, which must comply with; associating the immediate target of the proletariat with the final target, but not forgetting “there are situations where one needs the courage to sacrifice immediate success in exchange for more important things”⁽²⁾. On the other hand, the Party must attach importance to the propaganda of theory and socialist ideology for the workers’ movement, because “theory will also become a material force once it penetrates the masses”⁽³⁾. The more the proletariat fully absorbs socialist and communist ideology, the less bloodshed, revenge, and cruelty the revolution will cause. These views are the theoretical basis for determining the Party’s leadership methods through propaganda and mobilization; The Party must have an ideological foundation to guide and direct the way forward.

According to K.Marx and F.Engels, in order to carry out the proletarian revolution, it is necessary to attach importance to the cadres: “If you want to realize ideas, you need people using practical force”⁽⁴⁾. The party of the proletariat must train cadres to propagate the ideology of communism to the working class, so that the working class can see the exploitative nature of the capitalist system, its historical mission, and at the same time get rid of the influence of the bourgeois parties.

Inheriting the views of K.Marx and F.Engels, V.I.Lenin pointed out: the communist party must have a leadership methods adaptable to the new conditions; on the basis of sticking to the goal of building socialism, it is necessary to improve intellectual capacity and have the art of sensitively changing methods to suit new conditions, “that is the art of being flexible, taking into account the changing objective conditions, but quickly and suddenly changing tactics, choosing another pathway to reach our destination if the old one, within a certain period of time, does not seem suitable anymore, can no longer be followed”⁽⁵⁾.

V.I.Lenin vehemently criticized dogmatism in communist thinking: “For a true revolutionary, the greatest danger, perhaps even the only danger of exaggerating the revolutionary spirit, is forgetting the limits and conditions of a fruitful and satisfactory application of revolutionary methods”⁽⁶⁾.

When the task of building socialism was set out, V.I.Lenin warned the communists that anyone who wanted to apply the old methods in the struggle for power to handle organizational tasks would go bankrupt: “when the situation has changed and we have to deal with tasks of a different kind, it is not wise to look back and use the methods of yesterday”⁽⁷⁾. With the government, the Party must know how to add to its “handbook” with new methods and forms, such as the individual methods of propaganda and advocacy that each person still needs, but must widely use the mass information system, use the whole political system to propagate, educate, mobilize and organize the masses for effective revolutionary moves in all areas of social life; Combining political and ideological education together with stimulating material interests; harmoniously combining individual interests, collective interests and the interests of the whole society; combining education and training with administration and coercion; closely combining ideological work, organizational work and economic affairs.

According to V.I.Lenin, the party leads the government and the entire system of dictatorship of the proletariat, but it is necessary to correctly distinguish the functions of the party and the Central Executive Committee of the Party from the functions of the Soviet government, to improve the sense of responsibility and creativity of government officials and government agencies.

According to V.I.Lenin, the party must select and arrange cadres properly and organize regular inspection of their performance, considering the inspection of people and checking performance in actual work as pivotal in the whole work of the ruling party. V.I.Lenin required that the party exercise its leadership through the party organization, party members in Soviet agencies and within the framework of Soviet legislation.

President Ho Chi Minh paid special attention to the Party’s leadership style. According to him, the Party exercises its leadership by guidelines and policies, but in order to have the right guidelines and policies: “The Party and the government investigate, research and carefully consider the common interests of the people and set up policies”⁽⁸⁾; “The people know how to solve many problems simply, quickly and fully, which talented people and large organizations cannot think of”⁽⁹⁾.

The Party must pay attention to the stages of organization, implementation, inspection, and supervision: “Policy itself is the source of victory. However, to gain the real victory, it is still necessary to properly perform organization and struggle tasks. Once the right policy is in place, the success or failure of that policy depends on how the work is organized, where staff is selected, and where it is duly checked. If these three things are sketchy, then the policy, no matter how right, is useless”⁽¹⁰⁾.

In the Work named “Reforming the Working style”, President Ho Chi Minh separated an item (item V) writing about “Leadership”. He raised the question: “What is the true leadership?” and answered: “Leadership means: 1. Having to decide everything right, etc. 2. Having to organize the execution right, etc. 3. Having to organize the control, etc”⁽¹¹⁾.

2. The process of reforming leadership and governance methods from the 6th National Party Congress to present

The 6th National Party Congress required that, in order to perform the leadership role well, the Party must reform its working style and complete the working regulations: “We have initially developed working regulations of party and state organizations. It is necessary to learn from experience, supplement and complete those regulations. Specifying and implementing a number of internal working and living regimes, first of all, the mode of conference, the mode of inspection, the mode of self-criticism and criticism, the mode of contact with the masses⁽¹²⁾.

Party committees at all levels must renovate the way they lead mass organizations, creating conditions for each union to promote its initiative and creativity in its activities. Institutionalizing the powers and responsibilities of the Fatherland Front and mass organizations in participating in economic and social management. Defining and implementing regulations on coordination of activities of mass organizations and state agencies from the central to local and grassroots levels”⁽¹³⁾; Party committees at all levels must renovate their leadership methods of mass organizations, creating conditions for each union to promote its initiative and creativity in its activities. The Party exercises its leadership and respects the organizational independence of mass organizations”⁽¹⁴⁾.

The resolution of the 6th Plenum of the 6th National Party Congress, promoting the process of reforming the Party’s leadership method emphasized: “The Party exercises its leadership through the formulation of the program, guidelines, strategies and basic objectives of the revolution, outlining major directions, undertakings and policies in the fields of domestic and foreign affairs, and orients the activities of the state and the entire people”⁽¹⁵⁾. Next, the Politburo, term VI, requested: “To continue to immediately renovate the leadership methods of the Party committees at all levels. At the Central level: to further clearly define the functions, tasks and relationship between the CPV Central Committee (the Politburo, the Secretariat) and the National Assembly, the Council of State, Council of Ministers and mass organizations”⁽¹⁶⁾; The Party must respect the institutions and functions of the state and mass organizations, overcome bureaucratic leadership, personal authoritarianism, voluntarism, excuses and affairs, but must resist the tendency to deny or downplay the leadership role of the Party”⁽¹⁷⁾.

In the Platform on building the country in the transitional period to socialism, approved by the 7th National Party Congress, it was affirmed: “The Party leads the society by its platform, strategy, policy orientations and working guidelines; by propaganda, persuasion, mobilization, organization of inspection and by exemplary actions of party members. The Party introduces talented and qualified elite party members to work in leading government agencies and mass organizations. The Party does not replace the work performance of other organizations in the political system”⁽¹⁸⁾.

In the Resolution of the 3rd Plenum of the 7th Central Committee, there is a separate item on continuing to renovate the Party’s leadership method. The resolution specifies the leadership methods of the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo and the Secretariat towards the National Assembly, the Government, and the operation of the People’s Court and the People’s Procuracy; The leadership methods of the Party Committee for local government is based on that at the Central level and has appropriate application to the characteristics of the locality. The resolution requires that there should be regulations on leadership methods and relations between the Party and state agencies.

The report of the CPV Central Committee at the National Party Congress in the middle of the 7th term affirmed: The Party exercises its leadership “through the party organization, not only through individual party members; by collective decisions and by monitoring, giving direction, checking the implementation, encouraging the good aspects, correcting the deviations, in order to strongly promote the role and effectiveness of the State, not performing governance on behalf of the State”⁽¹⁹⁾.

The report of the Politburo at the 8th Plenum of the 7th CPV Central Committee on continuing to build and perfect the state emphasized: “The Party exercises its leadership through the party committee, the party union, the civil service committee, and through party members working in state agencies”⁽²⁰⁾. In particular, the Politburo specifically pointed out that the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat are to give opinions and decide on what matters in the activities of the National Assembly and the government (on socio-economic, defense and security fields), of the central judicial authorities.

The 8th National Party Congress stated the essence of the Party’s leadership method: “The Party exercise its leadership through the party organization, not only through individual party members; leadership by collective decisions and by monitoring, giving advice and direction, checking implementation, encouraging good aspects, correcting deviations. The ruling Party strongly promotes the role and effectiveness of the State, not administering it on behalf of the State. The Party and all its members operate within the framework of the Constitution and the law and are responsible for their activities”⁽²¹⁾.

At the 9th National Party Congress, the Party emphasized the “promotion of the roles and responsibilities of party organizations, party personnel units and members operating at state agencies in researching and proposing the Party’s guidelines and policies, etc. Members of all levels, especially key cadres, shall prepared work programs at the grassroots level, listen to opinions and answer questions of party members and the people”⁽²²⁾; Party committees periodically work with the executive committees of mass organizations, respecting and promoting the ownership, active and creative role of the Fatherland Front and mass organizations.

The 10th National Party Congress added more specific content: “Continue to renovate the Party’s working style and manner in the direction of truly democratic, disciplined, practical, close to the grassroots, close to the masses; work with a program, a plan, with a focus, talk goes together with action. Renovate the way of making resolutions, documents and reports must be concise, practical, and specific; renovate and improve the quality and effectiveness of each conference. The Party Committee spends a lot of time organizing, directing, checking, and summarizing the implementation of the resolution, directing activities of the State, the Fatherland Front and mass organizations, etc. Develop and implement the reporting system for opinions, etc. The Politburo and the Secretariat must report to and consult with the Central Executive Committee on their activities between the two meeting sessions of the CPV Central Committee⁽²³⁾.

Our Party requires: The urgent building and perfection of a system of documents specifying principles, subjects and mechanism on the Party’s leadership for the State in each field: legislative, executive, judicial and at each level and type of state organization. At the same time, the 10th National Party Congress set out the requirements: “Concretize the Party Platform, the Constitution and the Charter on the Party’s leadership methods for the political system and the whole society; clearly define the functions, tasks and relationship between the Party and the State, the Fatherland Front and mass organizations”⁽²⁴⁾.

In particular, the 5th plenum of the 10th CVP Central Committee issued a thematic resolution “on continuing to renovate the Party’s leadership methods for the operation of the political system”. The resolution specifies tasks and solutions to continue renovating the Party’s leadership in the activities of the National Assembly and the office of the State President; for the activities of the Government; for the operation of judicial agencies and the State Auditor; for the activities of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations.

The 11th National Party Congress continued to require: “Focus on reviewing, supplementing, adjusting, promulgating new, synchronously building a system of regulations, and working processes to continue to renovate the Party’s leadership methods for the operation of the political system. Overcome the situation where the Party defends, replaces, or gives slack to leaders of state management agencies, etc. Renovate the working style of the Party and the working style of the Party’s leading agencies from the central level, the local levels, to the grassroots, etc. Promote the roles and responsibilities of party organizations, party members and commissioners operating in state agencies, the Fatherland Front and mass organizations. Renovate the way of making resolutions, focus on leading, directing the implementation organization, inspecting, preliminarily reviewing, and summarizing the implementation of the Party’s resolutions”^(25).

The Platform for National Construction in the Transitional period to Socialism (Supplemented and Developed in 2011) approved at the 11th National Party Congress has supplemented and completed the Party’s leadership method: “The Party exercises its leadership by the Platform, strategy, orientations on policies and major undertakings; by propaganda, persuasion, mobilization, organization, inspection, and supervision and by exemplary actions of party members. The Party unified leadership in cadre work and management of cadres and introduced talented and qualified party members to work in the leading bodies of the political system. The Party exercises its leadership through party organizations and party members operating in organizations of the political system, strengthening the regime of individual responsibility, especially the heads. The Party regularly improves its ruling capacity and leadership effectiveness, while strongly promoting the role, initiative, creativity, and responsibility of other organizations in the political system”⁽²⁶⁾.

The 12th National Party Congress advocated to improve the efficiency  of the implementation and continue to strongly renovate the Party’s leadership methods for the political system, especially for the State; continue to concretize the Party’s leadership methods defined in the Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011) at all levels with specific regulations, rules and processes; renovating methods, styles and working styles of the Party’s leading bodies from the central to grassroots levels, building a scientific, collective, democratic working style, close to the people, respecting the people, for the people, sticking to reality, talk goes together with action; continue to renovate and improve the quality of the formulation and promulgation of resolutions of the Party, laws and policies of the State; focus on leading, resolutely and definitively directing, concretizing, institutionalizing and organizing the implementation of resolutions; regularly inspect and urge; renovate the methods of thoroughly grasping, preliminarily and summarizing the implementation of the Party’s resolutions and directives, ensuring the effectiveness; promote administrative reform within the Party, overcome cumbersome and unreasonable procedures, reduce paperwork, and drastically reduce meetings.

At the 13th National Party Congress, besides confirming the results, it was clearly stated: “The Party’s renovation of the leadership methods for the political system has still not been brought up to standards and is still in confused. The mechanism for controlling power in the Party and state is not complete, synchronous, effective, and not very efficient. The institutionalization and concretization of some guidelines and resolutions of the Party into state laws are not adequate and timely. The promulgation of resolutions by a number of party committees and organizations is not close to reality and lacks feasibility; the leadership, direction, and organization of the implementation of a number of resolutions are not strict, there is low efficiency, and in many cases have not met the set requirements. The situation of making excuses, alternating, or loosening the leadership role of party committees and organizations also occurs in some places” ⁽²⁷⁾. Therefore, the Congress posed the request: “Continue to strongly renovate the Party’s leadership methods under the new conditions”⁽²⁸⁾.

The leadership role of the Communist Party of Vietnam is also provided for in the Constitution. Article 4 of the 2013 Constitution clearly states: “1. The Communist Party of Vietnam - The vanguard of the working class, and at the same time the vanguard of the Working People and the Vietnamese nation, a faithful representative of the interests of the working class, the working people, and the whole nation, taking Marxism - Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought as the ideological foundation, is the leading force of the state and society. 2. The Communist Party of Vietnam is closely associated with the people, serves the people, is subject to the people’s supervision, and is accountable to the people for its decisions. 3. Party organizations and members of the Communist Party of Vietnam operate within the framework of the Constitution and the law”. The provisions of the 2013 Constitution are the successor thereof as provided in Article 4 of the 1992 Constitution, and at the same time supplements the provisions clarifying the nature of the Party according to the new spirit of the Platform.

After more than 35 years of conducting the doi moi process, although there are still many difficulties and challenges, our country has achieved great accomplishments of historical significance, along with strong and comprehensive development. This is the practical basis for our Party to continue to renovate the Party’s leadership methods for the political system.

In recent years, the party building work has made many positive changes. The Party’s leadership methods have made many renovations, while maintaining the leadership role of the Party, promoting the initiative, creativity and responsibility of state agencies, the Fatherland Front, and socio-political organizations. The promulgation of resolutions and conclusions of the Party has been closer to reality and has been institutionalized, concretized, and directed for organization and implementation, drastically and effectively. Propaganda of the Party’s policies and guidelines, as well as the State’s policies and laws, have been focused, with renovations associated with the struggle and rejection of wrong and hostile views. The organizational structure was further consolidated on the basis of promoting decentralization and more clearly defining the responsibilities of collectives and individuals. The work of inspection and supervision is duly valued. The responsibility of setting an example by cadres and party members, especially leaders, managers and heads of all levels is emphasized.

However, the renovation of the Party’s leadership in the political system is still slow. The state’s institutionalization and concretization of some guidelines and resolutions of the Party into laws are not adequate and timely. The leadership, direction, and organization of the implementation of a number of resolutions are not strict, low in efficiency, and have not met the set requirements. The situation of making excuses, replacing or loosening the leadership role of party committees and organizations still occurs in some places. The activities of propaganda, persuasion and mobilization are still limited. A part of cadres and party members are not really pioneering and exemplary. The administrative reform in the Party, reform of lifestyle and working style is still slow and has not met the requirements of the new situation.

The world situation is experiencing great changes, taking place very quickly, complicatedly, and difficult to be predicted. The Industrial Revolution 4.0 continues to develop resolutely, creating both opportunities and challenges for all nations and peoples. Hostile forces increasingly oppose the revolutionary cause of our country, using more and more sophisticated tricks.

In the current new condition, the renovation, the acceleration of industrialization and modernization of the country and development of the socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam in the spirit of the resolutions of the 6th Plenum of the 13th  National Party Congress  is a very great, crucial task with many new aspect, which needs to be thoroughly grasped with high political determination to continue to renovate the methods of leadership and rule over the political system in the new period n

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Received: November 22, 2022; Revised: December 23, 2022; Approved for publication: December 19, 2022.

 Endnotes:

(1) K. Marx and F. Engels: Complete Works, vol. 4, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 1995, pp.614-615.

(2) K. Marx and F.Engels: Complete Works, vol. 33, Ibid., pp.780.

(3) K. Marx and F.Engels: Complete Works, vol. 1, Ibid., pp.580.

(4) C K. Marx and F.Engels: Complete Works, vol. 2, Ibid., pp.181.

(5), (6), (7) V.I.Lenin: Complete Works, vol. 44, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2006, pp.189, 276, 398.

(8) Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, July 7, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, p.249.

(9), (10), (11) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, vol.5, p.335, 636, 325.

(12) CPV: Complete Works of Party Documents, vol. 47, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2006, p.473.

(13), (14), (15), (16), (17) CPV: Complete Works of Party Documents, vol. 49, Ibid., p.549, 630, 627, 833, 835.

(18) CPV: Complete Works of Party Documents, vol. 51, Ibid., p.147.

(19) CPV: Complete Works of Party Documents, vol. 53, Ibid., p.230.

(20) CPV: Complete Works of Party Documents, vol. 54, Ibid., p.46.

(21) CPV: Complete Works of Party Documents, vol. 55, Ibid., p.424.

(22) CPV: Complete Works of Party Documents, vol. 60, Ibid., p.156.

(23), (24) CPV: Complete Works of Party Documents, vol. 65, Ibid, p.357-358, 354.

(25), (26) CPV: Document of the 11th National Party Congress, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, p.264, 88-89.

(27) CPV: Document of the 13th National Party Congress, vol. II, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, p.217.

(28) CPV: Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, vol. I, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, p.196