Abstract
<jats:p>This article focuses on decoding the essence of the political system reform process in Vietnam through the lens of “National Agency.” By employing an integrated theoretical framework that combines Postcolonial Theory (PCT) and Historical Institutionalism (HI), the study elucidates the strategy of “Deliberate Hybridity” – an active principle of institutional design aimed at harmonizing global modernization requirements with the need to pre-serve indigenous identity. Through an analysis of four key pillars: the Socialist Rule of Law state, the socialist-oriented market economy, the mechanism of democratic centralism in power decentralization, and modern public governance, the paper demonstrates that the State acts as a strategic agent in filtering, localizing, and restructuring modern governance values based on a multi-layered historical legacy (Confucianism, Soviet model, and Doi Moi). The research results confirm that Vietnam’s “institutional self-perfection” model not only ensures political stability and dual legitimacy but also provides a significant critical case study, affirming the right of nations to autonomous development in the modern world.</jats:p>