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Laos
Index
Over the centuries, residents of the Laotian Buddhist
kingdom
developed gentle techniques of accommodation, often
searching for
more powerful patrons either outside the country or
within.
Authorities governed during the early years after 1975
with little
popular support, but most Laotians simply submitted to
their
authority because they had little alternative. However,
the
authorities were not harsh compared to other communist
regimes of
the 1970s and 1980s, most of which--by mid-1994--have
toppled.
The relatively passive Laotian political culture
inspires few
direct challenges to one-party domination, and party
authorities
firmly assert the limits of political dissent. LPRP
spokesmen
invoke a litany of explanations to justify the party's
monopoly of
power--for example, the country is too underdeveloped and
the
people too little educated to permit more than one party.
Further,
there are too many ethnic groups, and open political
participation
would lead to disunity and chaos. Political stability,
provided by
the leadership of a single party, is said to be necessary
for
economic growth. The LPRP has also pointed out the corrupt
multiparty system of the RLG. An abiding political
reality,
however, is that those who have power wish to retain it.
Restrictions on political opposition do not appear to
be a
salient issue among a majority of the population, although
a small
number of educated Laotians in intellectual, student, and
bureaucratic circles have raised a few protests. Despite
the toll
of age and failing health among the aged Politburo
members, the
leadership governs without active opposition. Even when
communist
leaders were unceremoniously dumped in Eastern Europe,
vigorously
challenged in the Soviet Union, and confronted by students
in
China, communist leaders in Laos retained their hold as
they guided
the regime into the uncharted realm of reform. It is not
clear why
there was so little challenge to these aging leaders. They
maintained a cohesion among themselves, perhaps a product
of their
many years as comrades in revolution, living in caves and
dodging
United States bombs. They may have also sustained an
enduring
respect from party stalwarts who followed them during
twenty-five
years of revolution. Whether the government will encounter
political opposition from a broader segment of Laotian
society as
it moves to a more market-oriented economy and
increasingly opens
its doors to Western influence remains to be seen.
Data as of July 1994
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