Laos: Marxism in a subsistence rural economy

Abstract

Laos was, and still is, fundamentally a rural, subsistence agrarian society, and its history and development over the last forty years can only be understood in that context. Its population of about 4 million is divided among over forty ethnic groups, with the dominant lowland Lao comprising just less than half. The remaining half of the population is made up of other lowland Tai groups, midland (Lao Theung) groups of predominantly Austro-Asiatic origin, and highland (Lao Sung) groups that have migrated from China. Lowland Lao and Tai tend to cultivate paddy rice in the river valleys, while the other groups subsist on swidden (slash-and-burn) rice agriculture on the mountainsides. Except in the more heavily populated areas along the Mekong River and some interior valleys, villages tend to be isolated and rely on their own production to meet all their needs. Barter between villages is proportional to their density, and it is only recently that one can speak of a market economy expanding beyond major provincial towns.