elected or approved by it, including the President and Vice President of State, the
chairman of the NA, the vice chairmen and members of the NASC, the prime
minister, the deputy prime ministers, the ministers, other members of the Govern-
ment, the president of the Supreme People’s Court, and the head of the Supreme
Procuracy.
The significance of the incorporation of the institution of the vote of confidence
in the revised constitution is considerable. This new device allows the National
Assembly to express its dissatisfaction at the performance of the senior officials and
to hold them accountable to the public. Mark Sidel, an expert in Vietnamese law at
the University of Wisconsin Law School, considers it “one of the most important
accomplishments of the 2001 constitutional amendment process, for it directly
reflected popular demand for the accountability of governmental officials.”^25
Adjustment of legislative and executive functions
Some revised constitutional provisions adjust the functions of the NA and the
Government to specify the principle of distributing public powers recognized in
the amended Article 2.
Article 84 , regulating legislative functions, is revised to strengthen the NA’s
roles in deciding significant national and international affairs. The institution is
additionally empowered to decide on the state’s policies on nationalities
and religions and to ratify or nullify international treaties signed directly by the
President of State.
(^26) The further buttress of the NA’s function is due to increasing
social pressure to fortify the role of democratic institutions both in important
domestic matters and in international relationships.
Moreover, the revised Article 84 decentralized the power to allocate the national
budget. Accordingly, powers and functions of the NA are limited for deciding
allocation of the central state budget, and local budgets are vested with local
representative bodies called people’s councils. This allocation mechanism can be
explained by the practical tendency toward more autonomous local government as
a result of local economic dynamics.
In conjunction with enhancement of the NA’s role, the revised constitution
introduced some constrictions on the powers of the NASC. During the period of
the centrally planned system, and even in the earlyDoi moiyears, legislative affairs
in Vietnam were largely handled by the NA’s standing body, because meetings of
the NA were considerably limited. Since the year 2000 , however, the role of the NA
has gradually increased, which has led to more lasting sessions (more than one
month for a session held twice annually). Consequently, even though the reliance
on the NASC’s activities remains, the revised constitution, while strengthening the
role of the NA, also constricted the functions of the NASC. To illustrate, the
(^25) Sidel,The Constitution of Vietnam,p. 125. (^261992) constitution, Art. 84 (revised).