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South Vietnam: The Symbolic Nature of Election Campaign Appeals*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2009
Extract
In a previous study, an attempt was made to determine the extent to which South Vietnamese provincial elites represent a transition or “bridge” between the national elites and the rural values of the majority population by comparing data on the social, educational, political and occupational backgrounds among political leaders and elites supportive of the GVN from both the national and provincial levels. In that study, the conclusion was that a comparison of social background statistics in isolation may be seriously misleading. Western-educated urban elites at the provincial level who are aware of and empathisize with traditional rural concerns can serve as a transitional cultural and political bridge. Indeed a fairly recent study of constituency influence on United States' congressmen indicated that a representative's perceptions of the attitudes held by the enfranchised population of his district was the intervening variable accounting for his electoral behavior as measured by his voting on roll calls. Thus, in the United States, “;;constituency influence is not provided by candidate recruitment but by elite cognitions.”
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References
1 Silverman, Jerry M., “Political Elites in South Vietnam: A National and Provincial Comparison, Asian Survey X (04 1970), p. 290–307CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 The following abbreviations will be used in this study: South Vietnam (i.e., Republic of Vietnam), NLF (i.e., National Liberation Front of Vietnam ), GVN (i.e., Government of the Republic of Vietnam) and ARVN (i.e., Army of the Republic of Vietnam).
3 Jerry M. Silverman, op. cit., p. 307. C.f., Edinger, Lewis J. and Searing, Ronald J., “Social Background in Elite Analysis: A Methodological Inquiry,” The American Political Science Review LXI (06 1967), pp. 428–445CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4 Cnudde, Charles F. and McCrone, Donald J., “The Linkage Between Constituency Attitudes and Congressional Voting Behavior: A Causal Model,” American Political Science Review LX (03, 1966), p. 70Google Scholar.
5 Ibid., p. 69.
6 The Campaign literature of Nguyen Dinh Dieu, a Naval Captain who took 18th place in the election results, was not available to this author.
7 Gusfield, Joseph R., Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1966), p. 166–170Google Scholar. C.f., Langer, Susanne K., Philosophy in a New Key (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951), especially pp. 53–78, 103–143Google Scholar.
8 The language used here is borrowed from Joseph R. Gusfield, op. cit., p. 170. He distinguishes orientations, the meaning of which are fixed, as follows: when perceiving action, this orientation is instrumental; when perceiving language, this orientation is denotative.
9 Ibid., when perceiving action, this orientation is symbolic; when perceiving language, this orientation is connotative.
10 Ibid., p. 179.
11 E.g., for the GVN, Press Conference of Nguyen van Thieu on February 6, 1969 reported in Viet-Nam Bulletin III (02 6–19, 1969), p. 1Google Scholar; Nguyen van Tien message to the Joint Session of the National Assembly, April 7, 1969 translated and reprinted in Viet-Nam Bulletin III (04 15, 1969), especially p. 8Google Scholar. For the NLF, La Ba, “A Democratic and Legal Power,” South Viet Nam, In Struggle 40 (07 15, 1969), p. 5Google Scholar. It should also be noted that the NLF is placing increasing emphasis on appeals to the Urban segment of the Vietnamese population; e.g. Phuoc, Ha Duy, “ Upsurge of The SVN Urban Population's Struggle,” South Viet Nam, In Struggle 30 (03 15, 1969), p. 5Google Scholar. “The VNANDPF Approves and Supports the Just Struggle of The Urban Population,” South Viet Nam, In Struggle 30 (03 15, 1969), p. 5Google Scholar.
12 Edelman, Murray, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1967), p. 181Google Scholar.
13 These definitions in ibid., pp. 1176–177.
14 Ibid., p. 20.
15 Aggregate data on the Presidential, Vice-Presidential, Senatorial and National elections is presented in Public Administration Bulletin Vietnam: USAID No. 41 (11 30, 1967), pp. 63–86, 109–127Google Scholar.
16 Brief biographical sketches of the 3 winning candidates are presented in Jerry M. Silverman, op. cit., pp. 229–300.
17 The extent to which these distinctions are unavoidably artificial is illustrated by the following 3 examples which are placed in the “war related” category, although they are also clearly “rural”: (1) stop chemical defoliation in inhabited areas, (2) provide adequate security for rural hamlets, and (3) stop shelling inhabited villages!
18 Ithiel de Sola Pool, Possessions and Desires of Vietnamese Villagers, Report 4 of a series on Communications and Attitudes in Viet Nam (New York: The Simulmatics Corporation, N.D.), p. 16 (ditto). This Simulmatics study was based on interviews of 829 villagers in 82 hamlets in 11 provinces located in the I, III and IV Corps of South Vietnam during the summer and fall of 1967. On the basis of geographical location alone, data from the Simulmatics study is not necessarily congruent with voter attitudes in Khanh Hoa, due to the fact that Khanh Hoa is located in the one Corps area (i.e. II Corps) specifically excluded in the study. In addition, hamlets controlled by the NLF or extremely insecure hamlets (according to the Hamlet Evaluation System) and urbanized or unusually prosperous areas were excluded from the sample. Further, the data was collected for purposes other than this study and was solicited in response to the question, “According to you, what facilities does your village need the most, second?” As a result, the responses focused exclusively on local village projects of a physical and economic nature. Thus, national level concerns were not solicited in the Simulmatics survey and the more abstract and symbolic appeals (e.g. “Oppose Dictatorship/Support Democracy”, eliminate corruption) were not related in any way. Therefore, whatever data is extracted from the Simulmatics report in this study is used only for the purpose of providing some highly qualified insight into the relationship between constituency attitudes and the candidates' perceptions of those attitudes.
19 Wurfel, David, A Comparison of C.B.S. Vietnam Surveys: I and II (Windsor, Ont.: Department of Political Science, University of Windsor N.D.)Google Scholar, ditto. Interviews were conducted of 1,505 Vietnamese in 11 provinces and 5 large cities of South Vietnam. Only 13–4 percent of those interviewed in the first survey and 18–3 percent of those interviewed in the second survey said that they were farmers. In addition, the data was collected for purposes other than this study.
20 For discussion of the ambiguity associated with the term “security,” refer to Silverman, Jerry M., Vietnam: Official United States Reporting and the Credibility Gap, presented at the sixty-sixth Annual Meeting of the American Political Science. Association (09 8–12, 1970), p. 11–20, 36–39Google Scholar.
21 The percentage responding in this manner might be as high as 28–6 per cent. The confusion arises as a result of the manner in which the data was reported in the Simulmatics study (refer to Table V). Thus, we do not know what percentage of the 52 villagers indicating a need for medical facilities as a first choice also indicated a need for maternity facilities as a second choice or vice versa. Thus, if no one cited both medical facilities and maternity facilities, the total would be 28–6 per cent. At the other extreme, if all of those citing maternity facilities also cited medical facilities, the percentage was 19–6 per cent. Thus, at least 19–6 per cent chose medical or maternity facilities.
22 Specific appeals were categorized as follows:
23 Reprinted in Public Administration Bulletin Vietnam: USAID No. 41 (11 30, 1967), pp. 88–106Google Scholar.
24 Jerry M. Silverman, “Political Elites in South Vietnam: A National and Provincial Comparison,” Passim.
25 Murray Edeiman, op. cit., p. 13.
26 Ibid., p. 9.
27 The suggestion that many villagers identify primarily with their local village is not the same as the contention that they identify exclusively with their local village. As is pointed out by Anderson, Charles W., van der Mehden, Fred R. and Young, Crawford, Issues of Political Development (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), pp. 28–59Google Scholar, sub-national identification is not necessarily fixed and immutable. C.f., Emerson, Rupert, From Empire to Nation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960), pp. 18–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Foster, George M., Traditional Cultures and the Impact of Technological Change (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), esp. 125–127Google Scholar; Geertz, Clifford, “The Integrative Revolution: Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics in the New States” in Geertz, Clifford (ed.), Old Societies and New States, (New York: The Free Press, 1963), pp. 105–157Google Scholar; Millikan, Max F.United States Policy (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1961), pp. 19–20, 75–78Google Scholar.