Abstract
This research clarifies the basic issues of public policy advocacy and the reason why legal framework for public policy advocacy is necessary. The thesis is also researching on the current state of public policy advocacy in the US, and France in terms of legal aspects of policy advocacy as well as giving general assessments of public policy advocacy in Vietnam. From that point the author will offer some suggestions for public policy advocacy in Vietnam.
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Overview
Most of States have the common task of studying, assessing the actual situation,
comparing with the current laws and articles of the Constitution, making the correct
arguments to decide the solution for the urgent and important issues that directly
affect the security and development of a country. Because of their important nature,
laws often impose strict requirements, which can become barriers that make it difficult
for citizens to state their views and thoughts with government agencies. State officials
contribute to the development of reasonable and effective regulations and decisions,
ensuring the democracy of society. In order to minimize the appearance of such
barriers between state agencies and citizens of the country, the public policy advocacy
mechanism is established and developed. Up to now, public policy advocacy has
become popular in many countries and has increasingly demonstrated its objective
need in political life in general, especially in the policy process of many countries.
Generally, advocacy is an activity carried out by an individual or organization to
persuade agencies to formulate and decide on the need to enact or modify a policy for
their own benefit or for the community or society. Although in addition to positive
impacts, public policy advocacy also brings many negative impacts, but no one can
deny the fact that public policy advocacy is increasingly becoming an objective
indispensable need in political life.
It is said that public policy advocacy in Vietnam is not really taking place properly as
in other countries around the world, because in Vietnam, the Communist Party is the
only party in power, most of the major decisions are made by the Party (Pham & Vu,
2013). The National Assembly with nearly 80% of the Communist Party members is
the place to institutionalize the Party’s policy decisions. Public policy advocacy in
Vietnam is advocacy in the “Party lobby”, unlike in developed countries, taking place
in the “lobby” of the Parliament.
In contemporary international politics, there exist many types of political institutions,
many models of organization of power, many different models of policy processes and
therefore, the impact of policy advocacy on regulation in different countries is not
entirely the same. But the common point is that in countries where advocacy is
involved in the public policy process and there is a legal framework for this activity,
public policy-making is fundamentally more open, information related to public
policy is more revealed and the quality of public policy is higher because policy
decisions are often more correct on the basis of multi-dimensional information and
have been accessed and analyzed in many dimensions.
In order to minimize the appearance of barriers between the State and citizens in the
process of exercising public power, making general decisions, the public policy
advocacy mechanism is formed and developed. Vietnam is in the process of
developing, the need to advocate for public policies is indispensable. In Vietnam,
although at a limited level in both theory and practical political life, policy advocacy
also exists and is increasingly being recognized. Moreover, although the current
public policies in Vietnam have basically followed and solved the problems posed in
social life, it must be admitted that there are still many limitations and shortcomings in
the main process of public policy as well as the quality of public policy making in our
country. That shows the inevitable nature of the research to clarify the role of the
public sector in some developed capitalist countries to find out the values that can be
referenced for Vietnam. Therefore, research and reference to experiences from
developed countries are indispensable requirements.
According to John Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil
Studies, 2011), which the process of public policy advocacy includes the following
steps:
1.Analysis of policy issues; 2. Formulating policy advocacy strategy; 3. Build
alliances, deliver policy advocacy messages; 4. Coordinate policy advocacy action; 5.
Evaluation of campaign results; 6. Track policy results.
This thesis focuses on systemizing and clarifies the basic issues of public policy
advocacy such as the concept of public policy advocacy, the purpose and the need for
public policy advocacy and public policy advocacy framework, from there, giving
general assessments of public policy advocacy, surveying the current status of this
activity in Vietnam (analyze some specific cases), find out problems in advocacy
activities in Vietnam. At the same time, it offers some suggestions to solve the
problem from developed countries‘ experience for public policy advocacy in Vietnam.
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