Objectives: Colonial Administrative Organization in Southwestern Cochinchina (1867–1945): Analyze the structure and logic of administrative governance in Southwestern Cochinchina during the French colonial period (1867–1945). Clarify both the colonial intentions and the modernizing elements of this system. Identify lessons and implications for improving Vietnam’s current public administration model. Theoretical Framework: This research is grounded in an interdisciplinary theoretical framework: Colonial Governance Theory: Understands the administrative structure as an instrument for colonial control and exploitation. Institutional Modernity Theory: Evaluates the extent to which colonial administration introduced elements of modern governance. Methodology: Historical–Institutional Analysis: Review and interpretation of colonial legal documents, administrative records, and decrees and Comparative Historical Method: Contrasts colonial practices with postcolonial and modern administrative systems. Archival and Secondary Literature Synthesis: Includes data from Vietnamese and French sources. Results and Discussion: Structure of the Colonial Administrative System such as Three-tiered hierarchy: Governor-General of Indochina, résidents or Provincial Chiefs, district-level Administrators (Administrateurs de Cercle) and the Southwestern provinces. Colonial Features such as Exclusive control by French officials; minimal local representation, prioritized taxation, resource extraction, and social control, eEducation, justice, and health services were designed to serve the colonial elite. Research Implications: Cautions against replicating rigid top-down administrative models in modern governance. Enriches historical knowledge of colonial state-building in Southern Vietnam Value Research: The study shows that the colonial government apparatus in the Western region of Cochinchina has typical characteristics of the direct rule model: tight, flexible and closely linked to a long-term social control strategy.
Thuan et al. (Mon,) studied this question.