constitutional protection or constitutional review, an independent judiciary, and
human rights implementation.
However, I am not so starry-eyed as to think that Vietnam has become a mature
constitutionalist polity. InBuilding Constitutionalism in China, authors Ste ́phanie
Balme and Michael W. Dowdle conceive the development of constitutionalism
in China as “developmental potential, not developmental accomplishment.”^85
The same can be said of the construction of modern constitutionalism in Vietnam.
Vietnamese modern constitutionalism is in its incipient stages and promises more
development.
The future development of modern constitutionalism in Vietnam is ambiguous.
Due to globalization, Vietnamese communists will be compelled to be more
democratic in order to maintain legitimacy, but at the same time they will certainly
not self-destruct by radically internalizing Western liberal constitutionalist values.
To handle this dilemma, Vietnamese communist leaders may employ a pragmatic
approach to Western liberal constitutionalism. While socialist constitutional theory
fails to provide appropriate answers for the topical constitutionalist questions, they
will be forced to look outside, to the Western world, to pragmatically internalize
some Western liberal products. Concurrently, the communists will control consti-
tutionalist discourse and practices to ensure that these will not invite substantial
challenges to the socialist polity.
Finally, labeling Asian socialist political systems as “authoritarianism” or a
“constitution without constitutionalism” is too simplistic. The dynamics, both
complex and uncertain, of constitutionalism in socialist Asia should be soberly
heeded. This chapter will contribute to our comprehensive understanding of the
diverse expansion of constitutionalism in Vietnam and the varied globalization of
constitutionalism in Asia.
(^85) See Balme and Dowdle,Building Constitutionalism in China,p. 10.