"No Responsibility and No Rice": The Rise and Fall of Agricultural Collectivization in Vietnam

 Communist leaders in Vietnam attempted to use agricultural collectivization to transform a poor, agrarian country into a modern, socialist nation with an industrialized economy. Collectivized agricultural production lacked sufficient economic incentives for Vietnamese farmers; they preferred to produce privately for household consumption or the free market. State-initiated reforms to collectivize agriculture failed to improve the performance of the agricultural sector, and eventually the Vietnamese Communist Party was forced to abandon collectivization altogether. Once farmers were freed from collective labor and could pursue private production for the free market, Vietnam’s agricultural output skyrocketed.
Governmental influences on the evolution of agricultural cooperatives in Vietnam: an institutional perspective with case studies
Using an institutionalist approach as the main framework, this research examines the evolution of Vietnamese agricultural cooperatives over the last six decades through four distinct phases – the voluntary collectivization period of 1954–1975, the compulsory collectivization period of 1975–1981, the de-collectivization period of 1981–1997 and the neo-collectivization period since 1997. Based on two case studies, this research examines the role of the Vietnamese government in the development of Vietnamese agricultural cooperatives. It argues that a stable legal environment and appropriate government support are extremely important for the successful development of cooperatives. In terms of theoretical contribution, the study calls for an integration of the notion of institutional dynamics into the current ‘static’ institutionalism and emphasizes the need to analyse institutions' influences at central, local and organizational levels to understand the formation and development of organizations. It also offers some policy implications that are relevant to the development of cooperatives in other economies.
The problem of balance in the peripheral socialist economy: A conceptual note
Abstract The structure of the peripheral socialist economy is fundamentally distinct from the ‘classical’ socialist economy upon which the planning literature has been based. Essentially this derives from the fact that the constraint on growth is foreign exchange and not the supply of labour or wage goods as such. In consequence the possibilities for accumulation depend on international rent, and depression of popular consumption does not in fact contribute much to the rate of growth. Three different sectors of the ‘peripheral socialist economy’ can be identified and related to problems of accumulation and planning.