The Underlying Indicators of Good Governance in Vietnam

Abstract

The concept of "Good governance" was brought to the world in the 1990s in the context of increasing globalization and expanding democratization worldwide. It can be seen that the common factors needed to implement good governance include: (i) Capacity of the state - the degree of problem-solving by governments and leaders religion; (ii) Responsiveness - whether public policies and institutions meet the needs of citizens and uphold their rights; (iii) Accountability - the ability of citizens, civil society and the private sector to monitor the responsibilities of public and governmental institutions.

In Vietnam, from the first decade of the twenty-first century, efforts have been made to set up indicators and measure the effectiveness of the public authority aligning to the principles of "good governance". Using data from the four sets of indicators in Vietnam namely PAR, SIPAS, PCI, and PAPI, this article reviews the process of developing the good governance’s indicators, compares the areas where each set of indicators measures and assesses the effectiveness, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each set of indicators, and reviews some local government efforts in using the measurement and evaluation results of the four sets of indicators to improve the quality of governance in their respective localities. The article also asserts that these four sets of indicators reflect a large part of the content to be measured according to the principle of "good governance", and presents some recommendations to improve the four sets of indicators themselves to better reflect the principles of "Good governance" in the near future.