Australia's and Vietnam's Executive Systems Comparision

I– INTRODUCTION.

More than 38 years since Vietnam and Australia established diplomatic relations on February 26th 1973, the relations between two countries have got great achievements and been continuously growing. The cooperation between the two countries has been well developed in many fields such as education and training, trade, tourism, defense and security and especially in politics. In recent years, the both sides have continuously increased diplomatic exchange activities in different levels and maintain regular high-level contacts between the two states and governments. The main factor for that strong diplomatic relation does not only come from the close geographic distance between the two countries; both are in the Asia–Pacific area, but also from the fact that the two states and governments share some similarities in foreign affair policies, points of views on international issues, and especially in the political systems. It would be undeniable that the similarities in institutions, especially in executive powers, make the two countries have a better understanding and help the two sides get agreements from each others in many fields and issues. But it’s also the fact that the differences in histories, traditions, cultures…also bring about some differences in the politics systems in each country. In this country-studying writing, we would like to discuss about similarities and differences in executive powers between Australia and Vietnam.

II- BODY

1. General information.

    The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy under a parliament democracy. At the very heart of the Australian national government is the Parliament that consists of the Queen who is represented by the Governor-General, and the two Houses including the Senate House and the House of Representatives. The government consists of members of the political party that wins an election and has the majority of members in the House of Representatives. The leader of the winning party will become the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, and he/she will select fellow parliamentarians for the titles of Deputy Prime Minister and the ministers to form the Cabinet. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are responsible to the Parliament. Normally, the Prime Minister would be a member of the House of Representatives where the government is formed despite the fact that one third of the ministers come from the Senate House.

    Meanwhile, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a single-party state. Like Australia, Vietnam has a written constitution of which the latest released version is the 1992 one that classifies the central role of the Communist party of Vietnam as the faithful representatives of the interests of the whole nation and the force to lead the State and the society. In spite of the 1992 Constitution's affirmation of the central role of the Communist Party, like in Australia, the National Assembly of Vietnam, of which 80% deputies are Communist Party members, is the highest representative body of the people and the only organization with legislative powers, according to the Constitution. The assembly elections for members are held every five years in which the President and the Vice Presidents of National Assembly will be elected. The new President of the National Assembly, on behalf of the National Assembly Standing Committee, then will announce the nominated candidate for the Presidency of Vietnam. The delegates of the National Assembly then will meet to discuss and vote for the President for the five-year term. Right after taking his/her office, the elected President will submit his/her nominations for the titles of Prime Minister, Vice President, Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court and Chairman of the Supreme People’s Procuracy. All of these titles must be confirmed by the National Assembly.

2. Head of State.

Although the Australian Constitution which dates from 1901 does not use the term “head of state”, the fact is that in practice, Australia, like the United Kingdom, maintains the role of the Queen of Australia as the Head of state. That role, in Australia, is divided between two people, the Queen of Australia, Queen Elizabeth II and the Governor General, the Queen’s Representative who is appointed for the term of five years by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of Australia. The Elizabeth is the Monarch and her majesty is the Head of state of Australia but due to her role as the Queen of United Kingdom, she assigns her Representative, the Governor General for that job. The Governor General has some of the responsibilities for ensuring that Australia is governed under rules set out in the Constitution. The Governor-General's powers are almost always exercised on the advice of the Prime Minister or other ministers. In practice, the Governor General carries out all the functions usually performed by the head of state, without the reference to the Queen. The Governor General also replaces the role of the Queen to chair the Federal Executive Council which also including the Prime Minister and the Ministers.

In Vietnam, the President is the titular head of state and also serves as the nominal commander of the armed forces and chairman of the Council on National Defense and Security. The President is elected by the National Assembly from the delegates to represent the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in both domestic and foreign affairs. According to the Constitution, the President of Vietnam has twelve authorities of which the most important ones are to announce the new Constitution, rules and ordinances; command the armed forces; ask the National Assembly to elect or dismiss the Vice President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court and Chairman of the Supreme People’s Procuracy.

3. Government

Like in other countries, the Governments are the highest executive bodies of the Commonwealth of Australia and the Communist Republic of Vietnam. The executive government in each nation, like in any other nations in the world, is responsible for making and implementing policies. Although Australia and Vietnam share the similarity that the government of each nation, which includes the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and Heads of ministerial-level agencies, is formed in the Parliament, the appointments and elections for these titles make the difference between the two countries.

As mentioned before, Australia, as a multi-party state, has the Government formed by the political party who wins an election and has the majority of members in the House of Representatives. The leader of that party will become the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia with the condition is that he/she is a member of parliament or he/she shall not hold office of a longer period than three months. The Prime Minister then will be appointed by the Queen’s Representative, the Governor-General. The newly-appointed Prime Minister will select from his/her political party fellows for the positions of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers in the Cabinet, who must be all members of parliament. The Prime Minister and Ministers also form the Federal Executive Council presided by the Governor-General. The principal functions of the Federal Executive Council are to give legal effect to decisions made by the Cabinet which is the key decision-making body of the government despite not being mentioned in the Constitution.

Vietnam, on the other hand, is a single-party state, has the government formed in the National Assembly. The government is under the supervision of the National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee and the President, and has to implement reporting regularly to these bodies. The government of Vietnam is formed right after the election for the titles of the President of the National Assembly, the President (Head of State) for the term of five years in normal. After being elected and confirmed by the National Assembly, the new President of Vietnam will nominate a candidate for the title of Prime Minister. That candidate must get the confirmation of the National Assembly before becoming the Prime Minister of Vietnam for the next five years. The elected Prime Minister then will propose three Deputy Prime Ministers, whose jobs are the assistants for the Prime Minister when he/she is absent or on leave, Ministers and Heads of ministerial-level agencies to perform the function of State management over branches or working domains assigned. All of these titles must be confirmed by the National Assembly before taking offices.

4. Ministers

    Like Viet Nam, the important position in Australia government is the ministerial office. Ministers are senior government members in the House of Representatives and the Senate who are in charge of government departments. There is a little difference in appointing ministers between Australia and Viet Nam. Specifically, in Australia, the Prime minister or the party selects ministerial candidates, depending on the tradition of the party. The Prime Minister then allocates members of Parliament to specific portfolios or departments. In Viet Nam, however, ministers must be approved by the National Assembly (equivalent to Parliament in Australia) at the Prime Ministers’ proposal. There are usually about thirty ministers (twenty from the House of Representatives and ten from the Senate) in Australia. In Viet Nam, the number of ministers is eighteen, which is much fewer than that of Australia. Despite these minor differences between the two governments, the roles of ministers in both countries are the same. Ministers have three main responsibilities. The first one is to run his or her own department such as the Treasury or Foreign Affairs and Trade. If there is any requirements from the government or the department about new legislation on matters connected with the department, the minister must makes sure the required legislation is written and passed through Parliament (Australia) or National Assembly (Viet Nam). Secondly, if the minister wants new legislation for his or her department, the Cabinet has to approve of the idea and then agree with the bill when it is drafted. Cabinet is a committee of government ministers chaired by the Prime Minister. It is the main decision making body of the executive government. Cabinet includes about seventeen senior ministers. Only cabinet ministers attend cabinet meetings unless there is a specific matter that requires the presence of junior ministers. Cabinet usually meets in the Cabinet room in Parliament House on Mondays, although it may meet at any other time if there is too much business to do. The Prime Minister may also ask the minister to develop idea for new policies and bills and present these to Cabinet for discussion. Thirdly, the minister sits in the Parliament and appears daily in either the House of Representatives or the Senate. All ministers must attend Question Time which lasts for about one hour starting at 2pm each day. At this time, any member or senator may ask a minister any questions about government policy or actions. Ministers bring to Question Time a large folio information so that questions can be answer with factual details. When a minister introduces a new bill in the Parliament, he or she outlines the main elements in the bill and the problem that the bill seeks to solve. The minister sits in the chamber during much of the debate on the bill so that he or she can be available to the Parliament and be able to answer questions from other members and senators. In both Australia and Viet Nam, ministers also have ceremonial duties that are to welcome important visitors, especially those coming from overseas. They also are representatives of their own country at international conferences and meeting, and may sign treaties and agreements with other countries. Finally, it seems that in both countries Viet Nam and Australia the relationships among ministers are separate. However, in fact, each minister of certain field often cooperates with others in order to solve complicated problems and reach maximum efficiency in the duration of building country.

III- CONCLUSION

    In conclusion, the Commonwealth of Australia and the Communist Republic of Vietnam share some similarities in executive system of each country, mostly from the similarities in the roles of each executive position. However the difference in the political institutions between a constitutional monarchy and parliament democracy and a communist republic differ the two countries from each other, especially in the elections and appointments of the titles in executive powers.