The Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The party's monopoly on state power is guaranteed by Article 3 of the Constitution of Laos, and it maintains a unitary state with centralised control over the economy and military.
The LPRP was established on 22 March 1955 by former members of the Indochinese Communist Party. It led the insurgency against the Royal Lao Government and supported North Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam War. The insurgency culminated with the LPRP seizing power in Laos in 1975. During its first years in power, the party strengthened party-state control over society and tried to establish a planned economy based on the Soviet model. In the 1980s, influenced by market reforms in China and Vietnam, the LPRP initiated economic reforms that privatised state companies and legalised private property.
Democratic centralism, a concept conceived by Russian Marxist Vladimir Lenin, is the organisational form of the LPRP. The highest institution of the party is the National Congress, which elects the Central Committee. In between party congresses, the Central Committee is the highest decision-making organ regarding party affairs. After a party congress, the Central Committee elects the Politburo and Secretariat, as well as the General Secretary, the highest party officer. In between sessions of the Central Committee, the Politburo is the highest decision-making body. , the 11th Politburo comprises 13 members. The current party leader is Thongloun Sisoulith, who holds the titles of General Secretary of the Central Committee, Chairman of the Defence and Public Security Commission, and Prime Minister of Laos, who is the head of government.
The LPRP is committed to communism and participates in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, an annual international forum of communist parties. According to the party statute, the party adheres to Marxism–Leninism and Kaysone Phomvihane Thought. Upon taking power in 1975, the party sought to immediately abolish the capitalist mode of production and establish a socialist society. By the 1990s, the direction of the party had changed, and the party leadership believed that Laos was too underdeveloped to build socialism. The party thus adopted state capitalism as a tool for working towards a socialist society.
History
Origins and the National Democratic Revolution (1945–1975)
The forerunner of the LPRP was the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), which was established by the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh in February 1930 on orders from the Communist International (Comintern). The ICP was tasked "to wipe out feudal remnants, to distribute land to the tillers, to overthrow imperialism and to make Indochina completely independent." Dominated by the Vietnamese, the ICP was originally named the "Vietnamese Communist Party", which was changed due to the Comintern's displeasure with the organisation's tone of Vietnamese nationalism and the Comintern's belief that the workers of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos had more in common than had differences. Despite its claims to be an Indochinese party, the ICP remained a completely Vietnamese-dominated one until after its formal dissolution on 11 November 1945, on which date the Indochinese National Democratic Revolution was proclaimed. Throughout its previous existence, the ICP had had no Cambodian or Laotian members. In 1946, a concerted drive was begun by the underground ICP to recruit Laotian communist cadres. Half-Vietnamese Kaysone Phomvihan, the LPRP General Secretary from 1955 until he died in 1992, was recruited sometime in 1946–47 while a student at the University of Hanoi. However, the lack of Lao representation among the underground ICP would remain a problem; and by February 1951 only 81 of the 2,091 members were Lao.