The Government of Mistrust: Illegibility and Bureaucratic Power in Socialist Vietnam

Notes

Introduction 1. Riles 2001, 3. 2. Riles 2006, 3, 7. 3. Mitchell 2002; Ferguson 1994. 4. The verbs my informants most commonly used were nghi ngờ (to doubt), ngờ ngợ (to lack confidence in), and không tin (to not believe in). Mistrust conveys all of these sentiments. 5. de Certeau 1984, 50–52, 59–60. 6. Weber 1978, 215. 7. Fforde 2003, 58. 8. For a more detailed discussion, see Verdery 1996, 20–26; and Kornai 1980. The phrase I frequently heard in reference to such arrangements was ăn miếng, trả miếng, which literally means, “eat a piece, return a piece.” Not all pieces of “food” are of equal size or quality, however. 9. Verdery 2002. 10. Dery 1998, 678. 11. Lampland 1995, 233–72. 12. See, e.g., Hue-Tam Ho Tai 2001; Pelley 2002; Giebel 2004; Ninh 2005; Leshkowich 2008; Schwenkel 2009; and Pham Quynh Phuong 2009. 13. For overviews of the literature on this topic, see Kerkvliet 2001a, 2001 b; and Tuong Vu 2007. On changes since Đổi mới, see Kerkvliet, Heng, and Koh 2003; Kerkvliet and Marr 2004; Gainsborough 2010. 14. Readers interested in learning more should consult Hy Van Luong 2006; McElwee 2007; and Taylor 2007. They critically examine recent studies, focusing primarily on changes in the north, where my study is situated, since decollectivization. For more specialized works, see Moise on the land reforms (1983); Kerkvliet on different 219 Notes aspects of collectivization and decollectivization (1998, 1999, 2005); Fforde on agricultural cooperatives (1989); Tuong Vu on state-labor relations (2005); Tran Thi Van Anh on gender relations in the countryside during and after collectivization (1999); and for ethnographic accounts of village life, again in northern Vietnam, over the past half century Malarney (2002) and Hy Van Luong (2010). I discuss Vietnameselanguage sources in subsequent chapters. 15. For a notable exception see Đặng Phong and Beresford (1998); however, their primary focus is on formal institutional arrangements and economic decision making between 1945 and 1986. Boudarel draws attention to bureaucratic practices as they are shaped by elite politics, primarily during the 1950s (Boudarel et al. 1983). Phan Đại Doãn et al. 1996 is the best source of information on the management of rural affairs at the local level during these decades. 16. Dương Kinh Quốc 1988, 198–99. 17. Caplan 2009. 18. Scott 1998. For an excellent overview of the changing relationship of territory to state authority and political rights, see Sassen 2006. For anthropological perspectives on “the state” in Southeast Asia, see Steedly 1999. For political science, see Kuhonta Martinez, Slater, and Tuong Vu 2008. Vietnam, though geographically part of mainland Southeast Asia, has much more in common with China than its other neighbors, however, due to more than two millennia of political, economic, cultural, and religious exchanges. For a detailed discussion of the effects these exchanges have had on state formation, institutional structures, bureaucratic practices, and so on in Vietnam, see Woodside 1971; Taylor 1983; and Womack 2006. Socialist models— typically imported from the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China—had a significant impact on Vietnam as well. 19. Das and Poole 2004, 10. 20. MacLean 2007, 2012a. 21. The Delta proper’s nine provinces are Vĩnh Phúc, Bắc Ninh, Hà Nam, Hà Tây, Hưng Yên, Hải Dương, Nam Ðịnh, Ninh Binh, and Thái Bình. I also participated in site visits in provinces that border it: Thái Nguyên, Phú Thọ, Yên Bái, Thanh Hóa, Bắc Kạn, Bắc Giang, and Quảng Ninh. 22. Foucault 1982, 221. 23. Jessop 2006; Lemke 2007. 24. Scott 1998. 25. Ibid., 11–22. 26. Ibid., 183. 27. Lampland and Star 2008. 28. Abernethy 2000. 29. Law 1986. 30. A “device” is a plan or scheme designed to serve a specific purpose or perform a special function. A device does not have to be mechanical, though that is most often the case. In the Vietnamese context, high-level officials often criticized low-level 220 Notes to Pages 7–13 ones for following official procedures in a “mechanical” (máy móc), i.e., unthinking manner. 31. The variants and dynamics they gave rise to are not unique to Vietnam. They are instead the product of empire. Moscow and Beijing—the socialist metropoles— had a tremendous influence on nearly every facet of political, socioeconomic, and cultural life in their respective colonies. Further studies...