1 - Introduction – Heritage, State, and Politics

Summary

Abstract

While the one-party state in Laos is nearly fifty years old, how is it possible for people to still revere the former Lao royal family? What does this mean for understandings of political legitimacy, heritage, and national identity in contemporary Laos? This chapter covers critical points of Herzfeld's cultural intimacy model and shows that the Lao political system as it is today has become part of the fabric of Lao culture and society. The context of Luang Prabang, the former royal capital, is also introduced, as well as the justification for choosing Luang Prabang as an excellent place to consider how narratives of the past, present, and imagined futures intersect.

Keywords: Luang Prabang, political legitimacy, one-party state, national identity, transition

The Lao People's Democratic Republic celebrated its 45th birthday in December 2020. It is one of the very few surviving examples of a one-party socialist system left in the world. My aim in this book is to ask how the Lao political system, which I will refer to here as nominally socialist, has become part of everyday life in Laos. Several generations of the Lao population now live, work, and build futures under this system. In sum, I consider here how they live in and around the state.

At the time of writing in 2021, Laos is a different place from the country that established one-party socialism in 1975. Collectivization and central planning have given way to a market-based economy since the mid-1980s, and the observation heard frequently from outsiders is that Laos, therefore, is no longer really socialist. Laos is now a country where growing inequality is very apparent. It is now a place where, as in much of the rest of the world, it is possible to become and be very rich but also very poor. In contrast to the days of strict socialism, it is possible to do things that would have been anathema to previous generations, for example, working and studying abroad in countries that epitomize capitalism. Yet for all that has changed – and the political rhetoric has changed over time – officially the country maintains socialism as a future political destination. According to the Lao government, Laos will arrive at socialism one day. As the system heads towards its fifth decade with no real indication of how, when, or even why, socialism is desirable now, this is worthy of investigation.