Vietnam currently maintains four levels of government, including central, provincial, district and communal levels. (Source: People's Army)
Among the current government models, perhaps the three-tier government model is applied in many countries around the world thanks to its reasonable division of power, increased management efficiency and promotion of regional development, economic growth, political stability and social cohesion.
In the world, the application and implementation of three-level government has been implemented by many countries.
The three-tier government model, consisting of central (national), provincial (regional) and local (grassroots) government, helps to distribute power and responsibility among different levels of governance, bringing many benefits such as high efficiency and flexible response, enhanced accountability and democracy; balanced regional development, effective cultural and social preservation, and enhanced economic autonomy.
Models of countries
In Japan, the government is divided into the central government responsible for national security, foreign affairs, and macroeconomic management; the prefectural government manages regional infrastructure, education, and public health; and the local governments – cities, towns, and villages – carry out local public service management such as waste management and public development.
Japan's administrative organization is divided into 3 levels: Central government; provincial government, and local government. (Source: Wikipedia)
As for the United States, this is a country with a clear 3-level government model including federal, state and local. According to this model, the central government is quite small, with only 15 ministries.
Meanwhile, the states (50 states) have a high degree of autonomy and local governments have flexible organizational models depending on the state. The federal government is the highest level, managing the entire United States, responsible for foreign affairs, defense, monetary policy, immigration, and international trade.
According to the US Constitution, each state has a high degree of autonomy. State governments manage education, transportation, health care, and state taxes. Local governments, including counties, cities, towns, villages, etc., manage public services such as water supply, roads, schools, and public order.
The structure of local government varies from state to state in the US but generally follows this pattern: the mayor is the head of the city/town government; the city/county council is the local legislature; local police, fire department, schools, etc.
Germany has a federal model of state administrative organization, including the federal government, 16 state governments, of which 3 are city states: Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, and local governments. According to the German Constitution, local governments are a very important entity in the political system.
In France, with the aim of reducing the centralization of power of the central state, the country organized regional administration. Accordingly, the French regional mechanism enjoys legal institutions that allow more independence and autonomy in promoting local development dynamics in all aspects.
France currently has 13 regions, each governed by a regional council, together with a regional economic, social and environmental council, which has an advisory function. The members of the regional council are elected by direct universal suffrage. The president of the regional council is elected by the members.
China is a country that is both centralized and decentralized. In the past and present, China has applied both high centralization and tight control, but in a broader perspective, this is also a country that applies a decentralized national governance mechanism.
The “Chinese characteristics” of this type of organization have persisted to this day. Many scholars refer to this model, which broadly decentralizes power to provinces large enough in both population and geography to become relatively independent economic entities, as “de facto federalism” (“De Facto Federalism in China,” monograph by Yongnian Zheng, National University of Singapore, 2007).
With a land area of 9.6 million square kilometers and a population of 1.4 billion people, and a highly diverse topography, China’s provinces and cities have an average population of 45 million, but the differences are huge. Each local government has very different jobs and needs related to both public management and spending.
India has a similar model to the US, with three levels: central (federal government), state and federal territory levels, and district, town, and village council levels. Indonesia has three levels, including central level (presidential government, parliament), provincial level (provinsi), and city/district level (kota/kabupaten); each province has a governor, each city has a mayor or district head.
Why three levels?
From the reality of countries, it can be seen that most countries in the world are implementing a three-tier model, instead of a four-tier model. This is mainly due to the following reasons: when a policy is issued, if there are only three levels of government, information will go directly from the central government to the province, then down to the commune for implementation.
People are very interested in the policy of studying the abolition of district-level government and what advantages it will have when it is implemented when there are only provincial and communal levels. In the photo: Dong Thap Provincial Public Administration Service Center. (Source: Tuoi Tre)
If there are four levels, information must go through another intermediate level, the district, which wastes time and creates the risk of errors or overlaps in direction. Applying three levels of government helps significantly reduce the cost of operating the administrative apparatus.
In addition, the three-tier government model also helps to strengthen the autonomy of the grassroots level, the level that directly serves the people. And finally, the three-tier government model helps to divide authority more easily and clearly.
With three levels of government, authority will basically be divided as follows: the central level takes care of macro strategies and policies, the provincial level is responsible for coordination, and the local level directly implements.
For these reasons, more than 80% of countries in the world choose the three-tier model, such as Japan, Korea, Germany, and France, all of which apply the central - provincial/state - local (city/district) model. In addition, countries choose the three-tier model of government because it helps limit conflicts of authority between levels.
Choosing a new model for Vietnam
Vietnam currently maintains four levels of government, including central, provincial (provinces and centrally-run cities), district (districts, towns, and provincial cities), and communal (communes, wards, and towns).
The existence of four levels of government increases the number of intermediaries, lengthens the decision-making process, slows down policy implementation, and reduces the effectiveness of the administrative apparatus.
Vietnam is entering a new era, an era of national development. This requires a breakthrough in thinking and action, maximum use of the country's resources, avoiding waste, innovation, and streamlining the apparatus towards streamlining, efficiency and effectiveness.
Based on the above reality, on February 14, 2025, the Politburo and the Secretariat issued Conclusion No. 126-KL/TW on a number of contents and tasks to continue to arrange and streamline the organization of the political system in 2025 and the 2025-2030 term.
This is a correct, timely and effective decision, and at the same time demonstrates the high political determination of the Party and State to reorganize the apparatus from the central to local levels, thereby unleashing resources to develop the country in the new period.
Conclusion 126 of the Politburo and the Secretariat affirmed the need to urgently study, propose amendments and supplements to Party regulations, State laws, relevant mechanisms and policies to have a legal basis for implementing and perfecting the overall model of the political system in the coming time, ensuring synchronization in the process of streamlining the organizational apparatus.
The conclusion also determined the restructuring of the apparatus in the direction of eliminating the intermediate administrative level at the district level, arranging the commune level to suit the new organizational model, organizing the apparatus, functions, tasks, powers and responsibilities of the commune level, and at the same time implementing the merger of a number of provincial administrative units.
There will be a lot of work to do and it must be done resolutely and firmly to have an effective, streamlined, unified, synchronous, smooth, economical and efficient national governance.
Choosing a three-level government, instead of the current four-level one, will be an inevitable trend to bring the country into a new era, an era of national growth.
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