Changing Context
The broad based political organisation of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) combined with the tradition of a one party state until recently allowed for little space for growth of an independent civil society. The political discourse of the CPV was not supportive of organisational expression of collective identity and interest outside the framework of the Party. Though Vietnam in the past had a rich associational life civil society as understood in mainstream development practice has remained underdeveloped. Mass organisations have been the largest and most dominant of social groupings. They occupied the space that civil society organisations tend to occupy across other countries and political contexts.