Laos in 1990: Winds of Change

Author(s):

Gunn, Geoffrey C.

Format:

Journal article

Citation:

Asian Survey, Volume 31, Issue 1 (1991). pp. 87-93.

Language:

English

Abstract:

It appears that in the 1990s, China and Vietnam will provide closer models for Laos than the post-reformist Soviet Union or even post-Tsedenbal Mongolia. But this does not signal equidistance between China and Vietnam, as even the new constitution underscores the sacred legacy of the Indochinese Communist Party. While economic reform will be allowed to run its course in Laos within the strict parameters of the New Economic Mechanism, political pluralism, bourgeois democracy, and the Western notion of constitutional rights will in no way be allowed to challenge the political hegemony of the ruling LPRP. As the flickering insurgency and the particularistic rebellion of the Hmong demonstrate, Laos is still vulner-able in security terms and susceptible to a flare up of primordial loyalties. In developmentalist terms, Laos remains the most backward and dependent of socialist states, lacking such fabrics of civil society as an educated and/or technocratic class. Facts of revolutionary history and demography alike serve to make a push for reformist-democratic rights from within extremely narrow based. Unlike even the regime in Phnom Penh, the Lao party has yet to face front on the question of rejuvenation and the matter of political succession remains open. © by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

ISSN:

00044687 (ISSN)

DOI:

10.2307/2645189

Identifier:

HmongStudies1093