ABSTRACT
The chapter begins by outlining the emergence of the idea of civil society. It argues that the ‘social imaginary’ is a particularly relevant element of political culture on which civic action draws. In making central the idea of free and equal individuals together making up society for mutual benefit, the modern social imaginary fundamentally differs from the Vietnamese social imaginary – which is based on the idea of hierarchical differentiation. After analysing the implications for the forms and meanings of civil society in Vietnam, the chapter discusses the constraints and possibilities for the rapidly increasing number of civic groups to bring about change. In the Vietnamese social imaginary, civic engagement takes place within the boundaries of the party state. The properties of the cultural and material structures of the Vietnamese state system provide more reason to assume that civil society actors will continue to contribute to the reproduction of social and political order rather than to democratic transformation.
