Vietnam has a history of thousands years. During the process of national foundation and defense, Vietnam has encountered innumerable difficulties in the resistance wars against aggressors, the territorial expansion, and the conquest of the sea, in order to gain national development and leave heritage of cultural diversity and humanity with particular identity for the next generations. | POLITICS - ECONOMICS Ho Si Quy Democratic Culture in Vietnamese Traditional Society Ho Si Quy * Abstract: Vietnam has a history of thousands years. During the process of national foundation and defense, Vietnam has encountered innumerable difficulties in the resistance wars against aggressors, the territorial expansion, and the conquest of the sea, in order to gain national development and leave heritage of cultural diversity and humanity with particular identity for the next generations. Vietnamese culture is, therefore, worthy of praise and pride in many aspects. For the entire Vietnamese history, democratic culture can be considered more or less traditional heritage with practical evidences. However, it would be an exaggeration to say democratic culture in Vietnamese traditional society played a significant role as a premise for the modern democracy; it would be also too far, if someone felt proud of the traditional democratic culture in Vietnam. “To achieve human rights, freedom, and democracy is an irreversible trend and they are really objective requirements of mankind. Vietnam is not an exception”(1). Key words: Democratic culture; traditional society; civil; Vietnam. 1. Democratic culture . Firstly, it is necessary to make clear the concept of democratic culture [16]. Democratic culture is simply understood as the habit in making conception and evaluation, and the skill and nature in practicing democracy of community. The habit and skill are shown via opinions, comments, attitude, and behavior of every community member towards: the system of power, including both state and religious ones; community-related decisions; community relationships; and, other community members. They consist of behavioral ways and values as well as communicative standards and patterns of the community and social members towards social strata, social institutions, social relations, spiritual and faith relations. All the factors, such as: the habit of respecting or disregarding
