Lao People's Revolutionary Party
political party in Laos
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 securing power in Laos in 1975. During its first years in power, the party strengthened party-state control over society and attempted 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.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q756180. VIAF identifies the subject as 148952906. The Library of Congress control number is n82213598. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955 and 1975.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lao People's Revolutionary Party” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.