Building a modern administration: Theoretical and practical issues

Abstract

The administrative system is constituted by four core dimensions: administrative institutions, the bureaucratic apparatus, the civil service, and public finance. A modern administrative system rests on socio-political and technical principles and is informed by the paradigms of New Public Management and good governance. Its salient features include a service-oriented administration committed to openness, transparency, and accountability; a streamlined and rationalized bureaucratic structure underpinned by comprehensive decentralization and delegation of authority, accompanied by effective mechanisms of checks and balances; and a professional, ethical, and digitally competent civil service. In recent decades, Vietnam’s administrative system has undergone substantial institutional modernization, reflected in the promulgation and revision of a wide range of legislative and sub-legislative instruments governing the organization of the state apparatus and the management of public officials and civil servants. These reforms have strengthened institutional design and administrative capacity, yet notable shortcomings remain. Advancing towards a fully-fledged modern administrative governance framework requires further institutional refinement, continued bureaucratic rationalization, the cultivation of a professional and capable cadre of civil servants, and the consolidation of public service ethics, integrity, and accountability.