Village versus State: The Evolution of State-Local Relations in Vietnam until 1945

Abstract

The traditional perception of the village as a closed and self-regulating corporate community has more often than not overstated its high degree of autonomy, downplaying thereby the interaction between the state and the local social units. This article aims at bringing some rectification to this type of misrepresentation by considering the dynamics of state-local relationship from the standpoint of the strategies laid out by the successive central governments in Vietnam to endeavour to integrate the rural communities into the national space.