When speaking of effectiveness, we refer to legally guaranteed validity, with the capacity for enforcement and application. Accordingly, effectiveness in the Party’s leadership and ruling role refers to the legal value and legitimacy of the Party’s leadership and ruling decisions, which are capable of being implemented and applied throughout the entire Party under specific conditions and environments.
As is well known, efficiency refers to the degree to which tasks are completed and objectives achieved with the minimum possible resources, using optimal methods of implementation. From this perspective, enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the Party’s leadership and ruling role means ensuring that leadership and ruling decisions with unified legal value are implemented throughout the Party in the most optimal manner and with the least resources. However, for leadership and ruling role to be both effective and efficient, decisions must be based on sound political, legal, scientific, practical, and moral foundations.
To ensure political and legal foundations, leadership and ruling decisions must be consistent with the Party’s political line and must not deviate from or stray from its political objectives. This means that such decisions must uphold the Party’s political goal of “building an independent, democratic, and prosperous Viet Nam, with a just and civilised society, without exploitation of one person by another; successfully realising socialism and ultimately communism.”
At the same time, leadership and ruling decisions must not run counter to the Party’s guidelines and lines, or to the State’s policies and laws. This requires strict observance of the Party Charter, which stipulates that “the Party operates within the framework of the Constitution and the law.” When leadership and ruling decisions are made by and through the law, their legitimacy and propriety become clearer, more open and transparent, and more firmly grounded in legal foundations.
The practical foundations of leadership and ruling decisions are reflected in their conformity with objective laws, Viet Nam’s realities and the development trends of the times. Decisions must reflect real-life issues, accurately represent the interests of the people and the nation, and align with global development trends. If leadership and ruling decisions are detached from Viet Nam’s realities and fail to reflect its practical needs, they will become dogmatic and bookish, lacking a practical basis for implementation.
If leadership and ruling decisions are detached from Viet Nam’s realities and fail to reflect its practical needs, they will become dogmatic and bookish, lacking a practical basis for implementation.
The scientific foundations of the Party’s leadership and ruling decisions are demonstrated by the fact that these decisions are the result of collective wisdom from the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army. Each leadership and ruling decision must embody the inheritance of the finest elements of national culture and human culture; be the outcome of democratic and open discussion among all Party members; and reflect contributions from the masses of the people, who are the beneficiaries of these leadership and ruling decisions.
The moral foundation stems from the Party’s objective of serving the people. As stated, “the Communist Party of Viet Nam is the ruling Party; it respects and promotes the people’s mastery, is subject to the people’s supervision, relies on the people to build the Party, and unites and leads the people in carrying out the revolutionary cause.”
The Communist Party of Viet Nam has no other purpose than to serve the Vietnamese people. Therefore, all guidelines and all leadership and ruling decisions are for the people, serve the people, and aim to improve the material and spiritual lives of the people. This is both the objective and the moral foundation of all leadership and ruling decisions of the Party.
It is no coincidence that the Party has drawn an extremely valuable lesson: “in all the work of the Party and the State, it is essential to thoroughly grasp the viewpoint that ‘the people are the root’; to genuinely trust, respect, and promote the people’s mastery; and to persistently implement the principle that ‘the people know, the people discuss, the people act, the people inspect, the people supervise, and the people benefit.’ The people are the centre and the subject of the renewal cause, as well as of national construction and defence. All guidelines and policies must truly originate from real life and from the aspirations, rights, and legitimate interests of the people, taking the people’s happiness and prosperity as the goal of endeavour. It is necessary to strengthen the close relationship between the Party and the people, rely on the people to build the Party, and consolidate and enhance the people’s trust in the Party, the State, and the socialist system.”
To enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the Party’s leadership and ruling role, the following solutions should be effectively implemented:
First, enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of leadership and ruling decision-making. This means that decisions must correctly identify the country’s objectives, vision, and development orientation; reflect the laws governing political practice; respond to practical demands; and embody the aspirations, rights and legitimate interests of all social strata. Decision-making must draw on the intellectual contributions of the broad masses of the people, political theory research institutions, teams of theorists and practitioners, as well as experts. Decisions must embody a democratic and scientific spirit, be closely linked to practice, and be oriented towards serving the people.
Second, enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of organising the implementation of the Party’s leadership and ruling decisions in practice. Under conditions where a state apparatus exists, the Party must act through the State and lead the State to organise forces; establish organisational structures, mechanisms, and policies for implementation; and bring the Party’s guidelines and leadership and ruling decisions into real life. At the same time, it is necessary to conduct communication, mobilisation, and persuasion to rally broad public consensus in effectively implementing the Party’s decisions in practice.
Third, enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of inspection and supervision by Party committees at all levels, State agencies, and the Viet Nam Fatherland Front and its member organisations in the implementation of the Party’s leadership and ruling decisions. To fulfil this inspection function effectively, it is necessary to promote the role of the people in participating in supervision and social criticism at all stages of implementation, thereby bringing the Party’s leadership and ruling decisions into real life.
Fourth, enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of reviewing and summing up the implementation of the Party’s leadership and ruling decisions in practice. To achieve this, it is necessary to promote the participation of theorists and practitioners in reviewing practical experience. Conclusions drawn from such reviews must be highly generalised, contribute to theoretical development, and have guiding significance for improving subsequent leadership and ruling decision-making, as well as for implementing the Party’s decisions in practice.
Fifth, enhance the effectiveness of applying lessons learned from practical reviews to the organisation and implementation of the Party’s leadership and ruling decisions in real life. Lessons drawn from practical experience are only valuable when they are applied to subsequent leadership and ruling decision-making. If lessons are carefully and seriously reviewed but not applied in subsequent decision-making practice, they will have no value.
To enhance the effectiveness of applying lessons learned from practical reviews, it is necessary to compare and assess these lessons against real-life practice. On that basis, foundations can be established for proposing adjustments to objectives, vision, development orientation, and guidelines, as well as for adjusting leadership and ruling decision-making and their implementation. The review and application of lessons learned must be objective, historically and contextually grounded, and closely linked to practical needs.
To effectively implement the above solutions, the entire Party must raise the level of theoretical thinking and foster and cultivate dialectical materialist thinking methods and moral qualities among cadres and Party members. Alongside revolutionary morality, the principles of objectivity, development, historical specificity, and unity between theory and practice will provide each cadre and Party member with a solid basis for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of leadership and ruling decision-making.
