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Vietnam The Council of State
The Council of State is the highest standing body of the
National Assembly. Its members, who serve as a collective
presidency for Vietnam, are elected from among National Assembly
deputies. The Council of State is "responsible and accountable"
to the National Assembly, according to Chapter VII of the 1980
Constitution. It plays a more active role than the titular
presidency provided for in the 1959 constitution and, in
addition, it has assumed the day-to-day duties of the former
Standing Committee of the National Assembly under the old
constitution. The council thus holds both legislative and
executive powers, but in actuality it wields less power than the
Council of Ministers. As stipulated in the Constitution, the
Council of State comprises a chairman, several vice chairmen
(there were three in 1987), a general secretary, and members
(there were seven in 1987). Members of the Council of State
cannot be concurrently members of the Council of Ministers. Its
chairman concurrently commands the armed forces and chairs the
National Defense Council, which controls the armed forces
(see The Armed Forces
, ch. 5). The Council of State nominally presides
over the election of deputies to the National Assembly;
promulgates laws and issues decrees; supervises the work of the
Council of Ministers, the Supreme People's Court, the procurator
general of the Supreme People's Organ of Control, and the
People's Councils at all levels; decides, when the National
Assembly is not in session, to form or dissolve ministries and
state committees and to appoint or dismiss the vice chairmen of
the Council of Ministers, ministers, and heads of state
committees; declares a state of war, and orders general or local
mobilization in the event of invasion. Such decisions, however,
must be submitted to the next session of the National Assembly
for ratification. The five-year term of the Council corresponds
with that of the National Assembly, but the Council continues its
functions until the new National Assembly elects a new Council of
State.
Data as of December 1987
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