Beyond Hanoi: Local Government in Vietnam

3. Village Government in Pre-colonial and Colonial Vietnam

54 Martin Grossheim© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 3 Village Government in Pre-colonial and Colonial Vietnam Martin Grossheim When the French established their colonial regime in Vietnam in the second half of the nineteenth century they were confronted with villages that had reached a comparably high degree of autonomy towards the central administration. Many French observers were impressed by what they called “small republics” where the “equality of the citizens is absolute”.1 The system of village self-administration seemed to be advantageous for the colonial administration and to guarantee stability in the countryside. In 1875 a French colonial officer praised “the Vietnamese village”: “The instrument is old, it is good, it fits to the people. What interest should we have to change it?”2 At the turn of the century, however, the initial admiration of Vietnamese villages mixed with criticism of the omnipotence of notables and with demands that counter-measures should be taken against that situation. The French first tried to introduce a stricter tax system and change the way local authorities collected taxes. In the following years, the French launched several ambitious reforms to make local government and finance more transparent and to change the recruitment mechanisms of officials to enhance their accountability. Reproduced from Beyond Hanoi: Local Government in Vietnam, edited by Benedict J Tria Kerkvliet and David G Marr (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2004). This version was obtained electronically direct from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Individual articles are available at Village Government in Pre-colonial and Colonial Vietnam 55© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Vietnam was divided into three parts under French rule. Northern Vietnam was Tonkin; central Vietnam, Annam; and southern Vietnam Cochinchina. This chapter focuses on the reform of village administration in Tonkin that the French launched in three consecutive steps after 1921. The reforms of village administration (cai luong huong chinh) and village customs (cai luong huong tuc) were a test-case for the French to make local officials accountable and introduce the electoral principle. I will not discuss developments in Annam because the French did not attempt to reform the system of village administration and the recruitment of local officials there. In Annam, it was only in 1942 that the French started to interfere with the formation of village councils of notables.3 In Cochinchina, the French tried to reform local village administration much earlier (at the beginning of the 20th century). However, at the beginning of the French colonial period, villages in southern Vietnam, especially in the Mekong delta, differed fundamentally from villages in northern Vietnam: they were much more “open” and lacked the strong community institutions like the public land system that characterized villages in the north.4 Therefore, under French colonial domination, villages in Cochinchina underwent a specific development that is barely comparable to that of villages in northern Vietnam.5 In the following section I review the development of village government in pre-colonial Vietnam. I focus on the way local officials, namely notables, were recruited. Village Government in Pre-colonial Vietnam In pre-colonial Vietnam, the court did not administer villages directly, but relied on local officials. The relationship between the court and these local officials and the institutions of village administration changed in the course of history. In 907 the term xa (commune) was used for the first time in annals when the country was divided into different administrative levels. The Ly dynasty (1010–1225) tried to put the villages under the control of the central administration by appointing mandarins (xa quan) at the village level. Their most important tasks were to collect taxes, and to recruit villagers for corvée and military service.6 Under the Tran dynasty the xa quan were replaced by so-called dai tu xa and tieu tu xa, but these local officials were still mainly concerned with matters of taxation.7 In 1280, for the first time the annals mentioned councils of notables (hoi dong ky muc), a council that was established in all villages and that the above-mentioned officials had to consult. 56 Martin Grossheim© 2004 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore During the Ming occupation at the beginning of the 15th century the administrative system was fundamentally transformed: the lowest administrative level was...