The Exploration, Practice, and Main Experience of the People’s Standpoint of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party

As a Marxist-guided proletarian party, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has always insisted on being the faithful representative of the power and interests of the Lao working class, working people, and the entire nation. It led the Lao people through the national liberation wars against France, Japan, and the United States, ultimately breaking the shackles of colonialist and feudal oppression, achieving complete liberation, and establishing the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 1975. From then on, the Lao people truly became masters of their own country. Summarizing the practice of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party in exploring the people’s standpoint and cognizing its laws is an inevitable requirement for consolidating the ruling position of a proletarian party and meeting the tests of governance. It can provide international experience for socialist countries in adhering to the people’s standpoint, while also offering a practical foundation and realistic reference for the development of world socialism and the international communist movement.

老挝人民革命党作为以马克思主义为指导的无产阶级政党，始终坚持是老挝工人阶级、劳动人民以及全民族权力和利益的忠实代表，领导老挝人民历经抗法、抗日、抗美的民族解放战争，最终打破了被殖民主义和封建制度压迫的枷锁，取得了彻底的解放，并于1975年建立了老挝人民民主共和国，从此老挝人民真正成为了国家的主人。对老挝人民革命党探索人民立场的实践进行总结并认知其规律，是巩固无产阶级政党执政地位，应对执政考验的必然要求，能够为社会主义国家坚持人民立场提供国际经验，同时为世界社会主义发展和国际共产主义运动提供实践基础和现实参考。

I. Theoretical Support for the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party’s Adherence to the People’s Standpoint

一、老挝人民革命党坚守人民立场的理论支撑

On the basis of inheriting and developing the Marxist-Leninist thought on the people’s standpoint, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, in the practice of leading the Lao people in national liberation, socialist transformation, and reform and opening up [1]1 The term “reform and opening up” (革新开放) is the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party’s equivalent of China’s “reform and opening up” (改革开放), referring to the economic and political reforms initiated in Laos in 1986., has formed and perfected a view of the people’s standpoint with Lao indigenous characteristics. The Marxist-Leninist thought on the people’s standpoint is the theoretical foundation of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party’s view of the people’s standpoint, while the theoretical achievement of adapting Marxism to Lao conditions—Kaysone Phomvihane’s thought of putting the people first—is its basic guideline.

老挝人民革命党在继承和发展马克思列宁主义关于人民立场思想的基础上，在领导老挝人民争取民族解放、社会主义改造和革新开放的实践中形成和完善了具有老挝本土特色的人民立场观点。马克思列宁主义关于人民立场思想是老挝人民革命党人民立场观点的理论基础，马克思主义老挝本土化的理论成果——凯山•丰威汉的人民至上思想则是其基本遵循。

(1) Marxism-Leninism as the Theoretical Foundation

(一)马克思列宁主义是理论基础

In their deep involvement in the proletarian revolution, Marx and Engels recognized that the political foundation for a proletarian party’s long-term governance is to firmly uphold the people’s standpoint and win the support and endorsement of the masses. The original aspiration and founding mission of a proletarian party is to lead the vast majority, seek benefits for the vast majority, and ultimately realize “the free development of each” and “the free development of all.” On the one hand, Marx and Engels clearly pointed out that the task of the proletarian party is to overthrow private ownership and all bourgeois modes of production and systems that generate exploitation and oppression. Taking the people’s standpoint as their starting point, they conducted a powerful critique of the laws of motion of the contradictions within the capitalist mode of production and the social ills under it, proposing the establishment of a future society of equality and freedom for all, free from exploitation and oppression, so that the broad masses can achieve economic and political liberation and ultimately the liberation of humanity itself. On the other hand, Marx emphasized that “history is the activity of the masses, and as historical activity deepens, the ranks of the masses will inevitably expand” [2]2 This is a paraphrase of a passage from Marx and Engels’ *The Holy Family* (1845), emphasizing the role of the masses in history.. It is necessary to fully recognize that the masses are the subjects of practice and the creators of history, to fully value the principal position of the masses as the drivers of historical change, and to give full play to their decisive role in creating material and spiritual wealth.

马克思、恩格斯在深入无产阶级革命中认识到无产阶级政党长期执政的政治基础就是要坚定人民立场，获得人民群众的拥护和支持，无产阶级政党的初心和使命就是要领导绝大多数人，为绝大多数人谋利益，最终实现“每个人的自由发展”和“一切人的自由发展”。一方面，马克思、恩格斯明确指出了无产阶级政党的任务是推翻私有制，推翻一切能够产生剥削、压迫的资产阶级生产方式和制度。马克思、恩格斯以人民立场为基点，对资本主义生产方式的矛盾运动规律和资本主义生产方式下的社会痹症进行了强有力的批判，提出要建立消灭剥削和压迫的人人平等自由的未来社会，使广大人民能够获得经济上、政治上的解放，最终实现人自身的解放。另一方面，马克思强调，“历史活动是群众的活动，随着历史活动的深入，必将是群众队伍的扩大”,必须充分认识到人民群众是实践的主体，是历史的创造者，充分重视人民群众作为推进历史变革的主体地位，充分发挥其创造物质财富和精神财富的决定性作用。

In the practice of leading the Soviet Union’s revolutionary struggle, Lenin, grounded in the new stage of capitalism entering imperialism and upholding the people’s standpoint, formed a new theory of revolutionary struggle and human liberation in the imperialist era. On the one hand, he further highlighted that the masses are the creators of social wealth and the drivers of social change, enriching and developing the Marxist historical materialist view. “Workers and peasants create all wealth for the bourgeoisie through their own labor” [3]3 This is a paraphrase of Lenin’s argument in *What the “Friends of the People” Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats* (1894) about workers and peasants creating wealth under capitalism.. While acknowledging that the masses create wealth, he affirmed that the revolutionary actions and heroic spirit of the masses are the fundamental force for eliminating the autocratic system. On the other hand, he proposed that the people are the guarantee of the stability of proletarian power. A Marxist ruling party, wielding immense power and managing numerous social resources, is prone to a universal practical problem: detachment from the masses, that is, failing to “maintain firm ties with the vast majority of workers and peasants” [4]4 This is a paraphrase of Lenin’s warning in *The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution* (1917) about the danger of a proletarian party losing contact with the masses., pointing out the harm of being cut off from the masses. Therefore, a Marxist party must be brave in actively accepting criticism and supervision from the masses, closely linking Party-masses relations, and waging a resolute struggle against bureaucratism, red-tapism, and dogmatism that detach it from the masses.

列宁在领导苏联进行革命斗争的实践中，立足于资本主义发展进入帝国主义的新阶段特征，秉持着人民立场，形成了帝国主义阶段革命斗争和人类解放的新理论。一方面，进一步凸显了人民群众是社会财富的创造者，社会变革的推动者，并丰富和发展了马克思主义唯物史观。“工人和农民用自己的劳动为资产阶级创造了全部财富”,在承认人民群众创造财富的同时肯定了人民群众的革命行动及其英勇气魄是消灭专制制度的根本性力量。另一方面，提出人民是无产阶级政权稳定的保障。马克思主义执政党拥有极大的权力，管理着众多的社会资源，很容易出现一个普遍性的现实问题，即脱离群众，就是没有“同极大多数工农群众保持牢固的联系”,指出了脱离人民群众的危害。因而，马克思主义政党要勇于主动接受群众的批评和监督，密切党群关系，同脱离群众的官僚主义、文牍主义、教条主义进行坚决的斗争。

As a proletarian party guided by Marxism-Leninism, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party’s adherence to the people’s standpoint is an inevitable requirement for maintaining the class nature and character of the party. Marxism-Leninism is precisely the theoretical cornerstone of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party’s people’s standpoint.

老挝人民革命党作为以马列主义为指导的无产阶级政党，坚持人民立场是保持政党阶级本色和性质的必然要求，马克思列宁主义正是老挝人民革命党人民立场的理论基石。

(2) Kaysone Phomvihane’s Thought as the Basic Guideline

(二)凯山•丰威汉思想是基本遵循

Kaysone Phomvihane was the principal founder and core leader of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and the state. He devoted his life to the struggle for Lao national liberation, socialist construction, and the cause of reform and opening up, leaving a precious spiritual legacy for the Lao people. Kaysone Phomvihane’s thought is the product of integrating Marxism-Leninism with the concrete realities of Laos. At the 10th National Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, Kaysone Phomvihane’s thought was written into the Party Constitution together with Marxism-Leninism, becoming the Party’s guiding ideology and action guide. Adhering to the mass line, emphasizing the principal position of the people, and wholeheartedly striving for the liberation and happiness of the people are important components of Kaysone Phomvihane’s thought. At the First Congress of the Lao People’s Party (the former name of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party), Kaysone Phomvihane profoundly explained the Party’s nature and mission: the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party is the party of the working class and the laboring class, and it must insist on serving the state and the masses. At the Second Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, Kaysone Phomvihane further fully affirmed the status and role of the people. During the period of national-democratic revolution, the main revolutionary forces were workers and peasants, which were the decisive factors ensuring revolutionary victory. After the establishment of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 1975, under Kaysone Phomvihane’s leadership, a three-year socio-economic development plan (1978-1980) was formulated, striving to improve the material and cultural life of the masses, raise education and medical security levels, and achieve an overall improvement in the living standards of all Lao ethnic groups. At the Fifth Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, Kaysone Phomvihane again emphasized the need to value the strength of the masses and summarized, generalized, and elevated this as an experience of Laos’ revolutionary struggle and reform and opening up over recent decades.

凯山•丰威汉是老挝人民革命党和国家的主要创立者和核心领导人，一生致力于为老挝的民族解放、社会主义建设和革新事业而奋斗，为老挝人民留下了宝贵的精神财富。凯山•丰威汉思想是马克思列宁主义同老挝具体实际相结合的产物，老挝人民革命党十大上将凯山·丰威汉思想与马克思列宁主义一起写入党章，成为党的指导思想和行动指南。坚持人民群众路线，强调人民的主体地位，全心全意为人民的解放和幸福而奋斗是凯山•丰威汉思想的重要组成部分。老挝人民党(老挝人民革命党旧称)一大上，凯山•丰威汉对党的性质和使命作了深刻阐释，老挝人民革命党是工人阶级和劳动阶级的党，必须坚持为国家和人民群众服务。老挝人民革命党二大上，凯山•丰威汉进一步充分肯定了人民的地位和作用，在民族民主革命时期，革命的主要力量是工人和农民，这是保障革命胜利的决定性因素。1975年老挝人民民主共和国成立后，在凯山•丰威汉的领导下，制定了社会经济发展的三年规划(1978-1980),努力改善人民群众的物质文化生活，提高教育和医疗保障水平，使老挝各族人民的生活水平得到了整体性的提升。在老挝人民革命党五大上，凯山•丰威汉再次强调要重视人民群众的力量，并将此作为老挝近几十年革命斗争、革新开放的经验予以概括总结和提升。

Kaysone Phomvihane’s thought is imbued with deep feeling for the people. It provides a Lao-indigenized interpretation of the Marxist historical materialist view and Lenin’s view of the people, enriching and developing Marxism-Leninism. It is the basic theoretical guideline for the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party to consistently implement the people’s standpoint.

凯山•丰威汉思想极具人民情怀，对马克思主义唯物史观和列宁人民观作了老挝本土化的阐释，丰富和发展了马克思列宁主义，是老挝人民革命党坚持贯彻人民立场的基本理论遵循。

II. Practical Exploration of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party in Practicing the People’s Standpoint

二、老挝人民革命党践行人民立场的实践探索

As a proletarian party guided theoretically by Marxism-Leninism and Kaysone Phomvihane’s thought, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has fully practiced the people’s standpoint in areas such as perfecting the people’s democratic political system, achieving a significant improvement in the people’s living standards, and unblocking channels for pooling the people’s strength. It places the people’s demands first, continuously meeting and responding to the needs and expectations of the people in different eras.

作为一个以马克思列宁主义和凯山•丰威汉思想为理论指导的无产阶级政党，老挝人民革命党在健全人民民主的政治体制，实现人民生活水平的显著提升，畅通人民力量的汇集渠道等方面充分践行了人民立场，将人民的诉求放在首位，不断满足和回应人民不同时代的需要和期待。

(1) Perfecting the People’s Democratic Political System

(一)健全人民民主的政治体制

“The working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery and wield it for its own purposes” [5]5 This is a direct quotation from Marx’s *The Civil War in France* (1871), where he analyzes the lessons of the Paris Commune.. In summarizing the lessons of the failure of the Paris Commune, Marx emphasized that the working class cannot take over the ready-made bourgeois bureaucratic-military machinery intact and use it for its own service, but must smash and destroy it completely through revolutionary violence, replacing the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with the dictatorship of the proletariat. Perfecting the people’s democratic political system is not only an inevitable requirement for defending proletarian state power but also an inherent part of safeguarding the people’s interests and upholding the people’s standpoint of a proletarian party.

“工人阶级不能简单地掌握现成的国家机器，并运用它来达到自己的目的”,马克思在总结巴黎公社失败的教训时就强调，工人阶级不能把现成的资产阶级官僚军事机器原封不动地拿过来为自己服务，而是要用革命暴力将其彻底打碎、摧毁，用无产阶级专政代替资产阶级专政。健全人民民主的政治体制，不仅是捍卫无产阶级政权的必然要求，也是维护人民利益、坚持无产阶级政党人民立场的应有之义。

First, perfecting the theoretical construction of people’s democracy. Taking the people’s standpoint of Marxism-Leninism as its fulcrum, and on the basis of an in-depth analysis of Lao society’s nature and stage of development, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has carried out a thorough elucidation of what people’s democracy is and of the relationship between the people’s democratic system and socialism. Kaysone Phomvihane once emphasized at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party that the people’s democratic system is the stage preceding socialism, that socialist democracy is the ultimate destination of people’s democracy, that the people’s democratic system contains many elements of socialism, and that mistaken understandings such as “socialism and the people’s democratic system are opposed to each other” must be avoided. [6]6 The Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party: A specific meeting of the Lao party’s top leadership, held during its Seventh Central Committee term (1982–1986), where Kaysone Phomvihane, the party’s founder and long-time leader, articulated the theoretical relationship between people’s democracy and socialism. After the Fourth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, the concept of “dictatorship of the proletariat” was no longer used, replaced by “people’s democratic dictatorship”; and at the Tenth Plenary Session of the Fourth Central Committee, the people’s democratic system was elucidated from multiple dimensions including economy, politics, and social development. The Fifth Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party re-examined the nature of Lao society and the basic national conditions at the current stage, pointing out that Laos is in a period of continuing to establish and perfect the people’s democratic system, and of creating conditions for gradually entering socialism; it further clarified theoretical issues such as the content and objectives of the Lao people’s democratic system, and realized a shift in ideological theory and political line from “building a socialist system” to “continuing to establish and perfect the people’s democratic system.” After the twenty-first century, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party further perfected and enriched this in the reports of its Tenth and Eleventh Congresses, forming a unique Lao theoretical system of people’s democracy.

一是完善人民民主的理论建设。老挝人民革命党以马克思列宁主义的人民立场为支点，在对老挝社会性质和社会发展阶段深入分析的基础上，对关于什么是人民民主以及人民民主制度和社会主义的关系问题进行了深入的阐释。凯山•丰威汉曾在老挝人民革命党四届七中全会上强调，人民民主制度是社会主义的前一阶段，社会主义民主是人民民主的最终归宿，人民民主制度具备了社会主义的诸多因素，要避免出现“社会主义与人民民主制度相互对立”等错误理解。老挝人民革命党四届八中全会后，不再使用“无产阶级专政”的概念，改用“人民民主专政”,并在四届十中全会围绕人民民主制度从经济、政治、社会发展等多个维度进行了阐释。老挝人民革命党五大对老挝社会性质和现阶段基本国情进行了重新审视，指出老挝正处于继续建立和健全人民民主制度的时期，并为逐步进入社会主义创造条件，进一步明确了老挝人民民主制度的内涵、目标等理论问题，实现了由“建设社会主义制度”向“继续建立和健全人民民主制度”的思想理论和政治路线的转向。二十一世纪后，老挝人民革命党又在十大、十一大报告中对此进一步完善和丰富，形成了老挝特有的人民民主理论体系。

Second, strengthening the institutional construction of people’s democracy. The Second Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party gave clear instructions on the Party’s revolutionary tasks and made plans for socialist construction and the perfection of people’s democracy after seizing state power: “Unite the masses of all ethnic groups, overthrow the aggression and rule of imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism, and the feudal classes, complete the national-democratic revolution throughout the country, prepare conditions for a direct transition to socialism without passing through the capitalist road, and make Laos a peaceful, independent, democratic, unified, and prosperous country.” By constructing a legal-institutional system of people’s democracy, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party further highlights the status of people’s democracy and the people’s standpoint. In 1991, Laos promulgated its first constitution, establishing the status of people’s democracy in the form of the fundamental law and clarifying that state power comes from and belongs to the people. As of 2017, Laos had promulgated and implemented more than 140 laws and regulations in fields related to the people’s interests, including politics, economy, culture, society, investment, and environment, forming a relatively complete legal-institutional system that provides institutional guarantees for protecting the people’s rights and interests and the status of people’s democracy. In 2012, the “Resolution on Building Provinces into Strategic Units, Building Districts into Comprehensive and Strong Units, and Building Villages into Development Units” was promulgated, making the strengthening of democratic institutional construction the primary task, fully respecting the people’s creative role and will, and enabling the people to fully enjoy various rights of political participation and social governance. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party emphasizes that the rights of the Lao masses as masters of the country are guaranteed and realized through a political system with the Party as the leading core. In accordance with the constitution, it perfects and improves the central-local political structure, combines mass movements to strengthen grassroots Party organization construction, unites the people of all ethnic groups to serve the socialist system, severely punishes diehards who oppose the people’s and the state’s interests, and strengthens the institutional construction of people’s democracy.

二是加强人民民主的制度建设。老挝人民革命党二大对党的革命任务作了明确指示并对夺取国家政权后进行社会主义建设和健全人民民主作了谋划：“团结各族群众，推翻帝国主义、官僚资本主义和封建阶级的侵略和统治，在全国范围内完成民族民主革命，为不经过走资本主义道路直接过渡到社会主义准备条件，使老挝成为一个和平、独立、民主、统一、繁荣的国家”。老挝人民革命党通过构建人民民主的法律制度体系，进一步凸显人民民主的地位和人民立场。1991年，老挝颁布第一部宪法，以宪法这一根本大法的形式确立了人民民主的地位，明确了国家权力来自人民、属于人民。截至2017年，老挝围绕与人民利益相关的政治、经济、文化、社会、投资、环境等领域已颁布实施法律法规一百四十余部，形成了较为完备的法律制度体系，为保护人民权益、人民民主地位提供了制度保障。2012年《关于将省建设成为战略单位、将县建设成为全面坚强单位和将村建设为发展单位的决议》颁布，把加强民主制度建设作为首要任务，充分尊重人民的主创作用和意志，使人民能够充分享有政治参与和社会治理的各项权利。老挝人民革命党强调，老挝人民群众作为国家主人的权利，通过以党为领导核心的政治制度来保障和实现。依据宪法健全和完善中央——地方的政治架构，结合群众运动加强基层党组织建设，团结各族人民为社会主义制度服务，严惩反对人民和国家利益的顽固分子，加强人民民主的制度建设。

Third, ensuring the authenticity and breadth of people’s democracy. After the establishment of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, it has long been committed to perfecting the theoretical system of people’s democracy, strengthening institutional construction, promoting the unified solidarity of the entire Party and the whole people, creating a lively and dynamic political situation, dynamically ensuring the basic rights of the people as masters of the country, and guaranteeing the authenticity of people’s democracy. At the same time, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party fully mobilizes social organizations such as the Lao Front for National Construction, and the workers’, youth, and women’s federations, enabling the broad masses to throw themselves into socialist construction and guaranteeing people’s democracy. Furthermore, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party attaches great importance to the country’s national traditional culture, guides and advocates learning and protecting the national culture, and vigorously builds cultural facilities. Due to the special national condition that Buddhist culture is integrated into all aspects of daily life in Laos and that the number of religious believers is large, it attaches importance to the role of Buddhist culture and organizations in enhancing the unity of all ethnic groups, broadening democratic channels, getting close to public opinion and popular sentiment, and maintaining social stability; it formulates and introduces religious policies that conform to the people’s will and wishes, regards the broad masses of religious believers as a positive force in socialist construction, guides religion to adapt to socialism, and forms an organic unity of Buddhist education, patriotic education, and civic moral education, thereby broadening the theoretical extension of “the people” and enhancing the breadth of people’s democracy.

三是保障人民民主的真实广泛。老挝人民民主共和国成立后，长期致力于通过完善人民民主的理论体系，加强制度建设，促进全党全民的一致团结，营造生动活泼的政治局面，能动地确保了人民当家作主的基本权利，保障了人民民主的真实性。同时，老挝人民革命党充分发动老挝建国阵线、工人、青年、妇女联合等社会团体，使广大人民投身于社会主义建设中，保障人民民主。此外，老挝人民革命党高度重视本国民族传统文化，引导和提倡学习、保护本民族文化，大力兴建文化设施，由于佛教文化融入老挝日常生活各方面，信教人数众多的特殊国情，重视发挥佛教文化和组织在增强各民族团结，拓宽民主渠道，贴近民意民情和维护社会安定的作用，制定和出台了顺应民心民愿的宗教政策，将广大信教群众视为社会主义建设的积极力量，引导宗教和社会主义相适应，使佛教教育、爱国主义教育和公民思想道德教育形成了有机统一，拓宽了“人民”的理论外延，增强了人民民主的广泛性。

(II) Achieving a Significant Improvement in the People’s Living Standards

(二)实现人民生活水平的显著提升

After the 18th century, Lao territory was constantly threatened and invaded by external forces, causing extremely severe damage to the Lao economy. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has always put the interests of the masses first, taking the protection and satisfaction of the masses’ interests as its starting point and ultimate goal. Therefore, rapidly developing the economy and raising the people’s living standards became the primary problem to be solved after the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party founded the state. To fundamentally change Laos’s poverty-stricken condition, it is necessary to apply Marxism-Leninism to Lao reality, adhere to the people’s standpoint, take safeguarding the masses’ interests as the highest value pursuit, promote progress in multiple fields closely related to the people’s lives, such as economic development, public health, civic education, and human resource development, and strive toward the development goal of a prosperous people.

18世纪后老挝国土不断受到外部势力的威胁和侵略，使得老挝经济状况遭受极为惨重的损害。老挝人民革命党始终以人民群众的利益为先，以保护和满足人民群众的利益为出发点和落脚点。因而，快速发展经济，提升人民生活水平成为了老挝人民革命党建国后要解决的首要问题。要从根本上改变老挝贫困的状况，就必须将马克思列宁主义运用于老挝实际，坚持人民立场，把维护人民群众的利益作为最高价值追求，促进经济发展、公共卫生、公民教育、人力资源开发等多个与人民生活息息相关的领域向前进步，朝着人民富裕的发展目标奋进。

First, promoting economic and social development. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party leads the government in formulating “Five-Year Plans for Economic and Social Development” to coordinate national economic development and promote economic growth and prosperity. After several “Five-Year Plans” of development, Laos’s per capita GDP grew from 325 USD in 2000 to 2,664 USD in 2020, with an average annual GDP growth rate of around 7%. The report of the Eleventh Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party in 2021 proposed a “Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development” for the next five years, striving to achieve an average annual economic growth rate of 4% and a per capita GDP target of 2,880 USD, and to “steadily improve the living standards and quality of life of the people of all ethnic groups nationwide, and remove the label of ‘least developed country’.” All previous congress reports of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party have emphasized economic development as the central task and made top-level design plans for the future development of the economy. The Sixth and Seventh Congresses of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, in addition to summarizing the experience of reform and opening up and requiring continued progress along the path of reform and opening up, also made overall arrangements for how to shake off poverty, developing the Lao social economy through the formulation of medium- and short-term plans, and promoting the transformation of the economic structure toward industrialization and modernization. The Tenth Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party pointed out that “if we want to develop, we must adhere to taking economic construction as the center, while combining it with social development, cultural protection, and environmentally sustainable development… Economic development must be closely integrated with national defense and security; economic prosperity and growth must be closely linked to poverty reduction and the continuous improvement of the material and cultural living standards of the people of all ethnic groups.” The report of the Eleventh Congress proposed focusing on strengthening infrastructure and large-scale service construction, enabling the masses to live a happy and healthy life, and emphasized that during the implementation of the “Ninth Five-Year Plan” for economic construction, “we must fully solicit and widely listen to the opinions and demands of the people of all parties and all ethnic groups nationwide, give full play to the master-spirit of the people of all social strata, and strengthen democracy in practice.”

一是推动经济社会发展。老挝人民革命党领导政府制定“经济社会五年发展规划”以统筹国民经济发展，促进经济的提升和繁荣。经过多个“五年规划”的发展，老挝人均GDP从2000年的325美元增长至了2020年的2664美元，年平均GDP增速保持在7%左右。2021年老挝人民革命党十一大报告中提出未来五年“经济社会发展规划”,努力实现经济年均增长4%,人均GDP达到2880美元的目标，“稳步提升全国各民族人民的生活水平与质量，摘掉‘最不发达国家’的帽子”。老挝人民革命党历次党代会报告都将发展经济作为中心任务予以强调，对经济的未来发展作了顶层设计规划。老挝人民革命党的六大和七大除了总结革新开放的经验并要求继续沿着革新开放的道路前进之外，还对如何摆脱贫困作了整体部署，通过制定中、短期计划发展老挝社会经济，促使经济结构向工业化、现代化方向转变。老挝十大指出“想发展就要坚持以经济建设为中心，同时结合社会发展、文化保护和环境可持续发展……经济发展要与国防治安紧密结合，经济繁荣壮大要与减贫和不断提高各族人民物质文化生活水平紧密联系”。在十一大报告中提出要重点加强基础设施与大型服务建设，让群众过上幸福健康的生活，并强调在进行“九五”经济建设规划过程中“充分征求、广泛听取全国各党派各民族人民的意见和诉求，充分发挥社会各阶层人民的主人翁精神，在实践中加强民主”。

Second, improving public health service capacity. Medical care is a necessity for people’s livelihood. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has repeatedly emphasized the need to raise the coverage rate and quality of medical and health services, increase investment in medical and health services in remote areas, train a contingent of doctors and nurses who are dedicated to their work and have a service spirit, and ensure that the Lao people universally enjoy medical and health services. Laos implements a free medical policy in all public hospitals nationwide and carries out activities to build health villages and advanced villages for disease prevention to strengthen the people’s awareness of self-protection. It has also made considerable progress in the United Nations “Millennium Development Goals,”[7]7 The “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) were eight international development goals established following the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, with a target date of 2015. such as reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, preventing and treating AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has extended public health work to the vast rural areas of Laos, achieving a coverage rate of 98%, and has provided more than 5,000 village-level medical kits to rural areas. At the same time, it actively guides the orderly development of the “Red Cross,” strengthens exchanges and cooperation with the Red Cross and the World Health Organization of other countries, consistently implements the public health and social welfare security policies of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and the state, carries out medical mutual assistance, and the proportion of the poor population joining medical hardship assistance has reached more than three-quarters. It is noteworthy that in responding to the sudden public health incident of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party coordinated and leveraged domestic and foreign medical resources to keep the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in Laos at a low level, and actively engaged in scientific research cooperation with countries such as China, thereby ensuring the safety of the lives and property of the Lao people.

二是提升公共卫生服务能力。医疗是民生之需，老挝人民革命党多次强调应提高医疗卫生服务覆盖率和质量，加大对偏远地区医疗卫生投入力度，培养一支爱岗敬业、有服务精神的医生和护士，确保老挝人民普遍享有医疗卫生服务。老挝在全国公立医院实行免费医疗政策，并开展卫生村和预防疾病先进村的活动加强人民群众的自我防护意识，在降低儿童死亡率、保障孕产妇健康、防治艾滋病、疟疾和其他疾病和保证环境的可持续方面等联合国“千禧目标”中也取得了相当大的进展。老挝人民革命党将公共卫生工作覆盖到了老挝广大的农村地区，覆盖率已达到98%,并面向农村地区提供了村级医疗包5000余个。同时积极引导“红十字会”有序发展，加强与其他国家“红十字会”“世界卫生组织”的交流合作，坚持贯彻落实老挝人民革命党和国家的公共卫生和社会福利保障政策，开展医疗互助，贫困人口加入医疗困难救助的比例达到了四分之三以上。值得注意的是，在防控新冠肺炎疫情这一突发公共卫生事件时，老挝人民革命党协调、借助国内外医疗资源，将老挝新冠确诊人数、死亡人数控制在较低水平，并积极与中国等国家进行科研合作，使老挝人民生命财产安全得到了保障。

Third, improving the national education system. Education is the foundation of people’s livelihood. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has always placed the cause of education in a position of priority development and continuously deepened the reform of the national education system. As early as the beginning of the founding of the nation, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and the state, in order to eliminate illiteracy and raise the cultural level of the people, strove to establish primary education in villages, including in impoverished areas. In 1991, the Fifth Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party clearly put forward the educational policy and goal of “raising the educational level of the entire nation,” while the Seventh Congress of the Party put forward the slogan of “improving the quality of education and promoting the transformation of Lao education toward modernization.” Choummaly Sayasone, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, emphasized at the 60th anniversary congress of the founding of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party that educational development and human resource development should be taken as central tasks, cultivating Lao people with ideals, morality, knowledge, and ability to meet the needs of the country and society. After decades of development, the coverage of educated people in Laos has expanded. The number of primary and secondary schools in Laos increased from 4,444 and 83 at the time of the founding of the nation to 8,823 and 1,816 in 2019, respectively. By the end of the “Eighth Five-Year Plan,”[8]8 The “Eighth Five-Year Plan” refers to Laos’s national socio-economic development plan covering the period 2016–2020. the enrollment rate for 5-year-old children reached 82.7%, and the primary school enrollment rate reached 99%. In terms of vocational education, by 2017, 23 vocational education schools and 101 vocational technical schools had been established, basically covering primary, intermediate, senior, and preparatory levels, focusing on cultivating various types of talents such as skilled workers, management personnel, and enterprise personnel, providing substantial human resources support for the development of the national economy and the rational layout of industries. In terms of higher education, a total of 5 undergraduate universities and 106 junior colleges have been established nationwide, in addition to 12 teacher-training institutions including the Faculty of Education of the National University of Laos, basically completing the coverage and construction of the national education system.

三是完善国民教育体系。教育是民生之基，老挝人民革命党始终把教育事业放在优先发展的位置，不断深入推进国家教育体制改革。早在建国之初，老挝人民革命党和国家为消除文盲，提高人民群众的文化水平，就争取在包括贫苦地区的乡村开办小学教育。1991年老挝人民革命党五大明确提出了“提高全民族教育水平”的教育方针和目标，党的七大则提出了“提高教育质量，促进老挝教育向现代化转变”的口号。老挝人民革命党中央总书记朱马里•赛雅颂在老挝人民革命党成立60周年大会上强调，要把教育发展和人力资源开发作为中心任务，培养出有理想、有道德、有知识和有能力的老挝人，以满足国家和社会的需要。经过数十年的发展，老挝受教育人民的覆盖面有所扩大，老挝小学、中学数量分别从建国时的4444所、83所增长至2019年的8823所和1816所。截至“八五计划”结束，5岁儿童入学率达到了82.7%,小学入学率达99%。职业教育方面，截至2017年共建立了职业教育学校23所，职业技术学校101所，基本涵盖了初、中、高级和预科，着重培养技术工人、管理人员、企业人员等各类人才，为国民经济的发展和产业的合理布局提供大量人力支持。高等教育方面，全国共建立了本科院校5所、大专院校106所，另外还设立有包括国立大学教育学院在内的师范类院校12所，基本完成了国民教育体系的覆盖构建。

(3) Unblocking the channels for gathering the people’s strength

(三)畅通人民力量的汇聚渠道

The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party adheres to the people’s standpoint, leverages the role of mass organizations to consolidate public opinion, maintains the Party’s purity through the anti-corruption struggle, unites the people around the Party, and unblocks the channels for gathering the people’s strength.

老挝人民革命党坚持人民立场，发挥群众组织的作用凝聚了民意，通过反腐败斗争保持了党的纯洁，使人民团结在党的周围，畅通了人民力量的汇聚渠道。

First, strengthening the close connection between the Party and the people. “Party cadres and members must always be devoted to the people, loyal to the people, love the people, adhere to the mass line, and persist in taking the people as the foundation.” The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party believes that whether it maintains close ties with the people is a decisive condition for the Party’s survival and development, and that breaking away from the people is the greatest threat and challenge facing the Party. Maintaining close ties with the masses means understanding the people’s thoughts, desires, needs, and aspirations. Therefore, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party always attaches importance to the role of mass organizations, creatively guides the people of all ethnic groups to unite in the united front under the leadership of the Party, and leverages the role of mass organizations such as the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union, the Women’s Union, and the Workers’ Union in rural construction, poverty alleviation, and grassroots construction, strengthening ethnic unity education. At the same time, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party actively inherits and promotes the national culture. Given the reality that the country has a large number of religious believers and Buddhism has long been integrated into all areas of social life, it regards religious believers as a positive force in socialist construction and treats Buddhist activities as an important part of patriotic and civic education, using this as an important way to unite the broad masses of the people and unblock the channels for gathering the people’s strength.

一是加强党与人民的密切联系。“党员干部要始终执着于人民，忠于人民，爱于人民，坚持走群众路线，坚持以人民为本。”老挝人民革命党认为是否密切与人民群众的联系是事关党生死存亡和存在发展的决定性条件，脱离人民群众是党面临的最大威胁和挑战。密切联系群众，就是要了解人民群众的所思所想、所及所盼，因而老挝人民革命党时刻重视发挥群众组织的作用，创造性地引领各民族人民团结在党领导下的统一战线中，发挥老挝人民革命青年团、妇女联合会、工人联合会等群众组织在农村建设、减贫脱贫、基层建设等工作中的作用，加强民族团结教育。同时，老挝人民革命党积极传承和弘扬本民族文化，结合本国信教人数众多，佛教早已融入社会生活各领域的现实，将信教群众视为社会主义建设的积极力量，并将佛教活动作为爱国主义和公民教育的重要组成部分，以此作为团结广大人民的重要方式，畅通人民力量的汇集渠道。

Second, strengthening the Party’s work style construction. “Our Party has always adhered to the guidance of Marxist-Leninist Party-building theory, adhered to the principle of democratic centralism, actively promoted self-criticism and mutual criticism within the Party, resolutely cracked down on the abuse of power for personal gain and opportunistic behavior, and built a transparent, positive, and excellent Party.” The issue of work style is a prominent manifestation of whether a Marxist political party can maintain its advanced nature and purity, and it is also the key to whether the ruling party can gather public opinion and fully leverage the people’s strength. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party requires Party cadres and members at all levels to maintain close ties with the masses, must go deep into the masses, rural areas, ethnic minority areas, and impoverished areas. Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee, including the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, must go to the grassroots at least three times a year, using the situation observed during grassroots inspections as the basis for formulating policies and guiding practical work. At the same time, the Party’s work style is related to the Party’s image in the eyes of the people and the Party’s prestige, and it is necessary to resolutely fight against unhealthy tendencies. To this end, the Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party focused on studying major issues such as Party building, emphasized strengthening the Party’s work style construction, decided to wage a resolute struggle against unhealthy work styles such as bureaucracy, formalism, individualism, money worship, and extravagance and waste, and made an overall deployment of work style construction from the height of Party building. Subsequently, the Fourth and Fifth Plenary Sessions of the Tenth Central Committee successively issued intra-Party documents and regulations such as the “Order on Carrying Out Party Life Meetings for Party Rectification Throughout the Party” and “Resolutely Rectify the Party to Be Pure, Strong, and Stable,”[9]9 These are internal Party documents and regulations issued by the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party to enforce discipline and improve work style. emphasizing the need to combat all unhealthy work styles and cultivate and establish correct working and living styles.

二是加强党的作风建设。“我党始终坚持马克思列宁主义的建党理论指导，坚持民主集中制原则，积极提倡党内的自我批评和相互批评，坚决打击以权谋私与投机取巧，打造透明、积极、优良的党。”作风问题是马克思主义政党能否保持先进性、纯洁性的一大突出表现，也是执政党能否聚集民心汇集民意，充分发挥人民力量的关键所在。老挝人民革命党要求各级党员干部要密切联系群众，必须深入群众、农村、少数民族地区和贫困地区，包括老挝人民革命党中央总书记在内的中央政治局委员每年至少深入基层3次，将下基层视察的情况作为制定政策、指导实际工作的基础。同时，党的作风关系到党在人民群众心目中的形象，关系到党的威信，要坚决与不正之风作斗争。为此，老挝人民革命党的十届三中全会重点围绕党的建设等重大问题进行研究，强调要加强党的作风建设，决定同官僚主义、形式主义、个人主义、拜金主义及铺张浪费等不良作风展开坚决的斗争，并从党的建设高度对作风建设进行了总体部署。此后的十届四中、五中全会又连续出台了《关于在全党开展整党政治生活会的命令》《坚决把党整顿得纯洁、坚强和稳固》等党内文件和法规，突出强调要打击一切不良作风，培养和树立正确的工作生活作风。

Third, punishing corruption to consolidate popular support. Corruption, at its lightest, causes severe losses to the state and society; at its worst, it destroys the Party’s image, severs the Party’s connection with the people, and causes the Party to lose its governing foundation. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) places great emphasis on punishing corruption, resolutely curbing the degeneration of Party members, and maintaining the Party’s prestige. In 1992, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee of the LPRP promulgated the “Regulations on Anti-Corruption and Bribery.” [10]10 The Fifth Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee of the LPRP was a key meeting in 1992 that addressed governance and anti-corruption issues. Subsequently, the Lao state formulated and repeatedly amended the “Law on Anti-Corruption and Bribery,” continuously improving the anti-corruption legal system. In 2012, the Political Bureau of the LPRP Central Committee issued Document No. 2, which revised the original “Prohibitions on the Conduct of Party Cadres and Members,” incorporating corrupt behavior as a “Party member prohibition” into the Party Constitution, and established Party inspection and supervision work and discipline inspection committees at all levels, clarifying Party discipline. Starting in 2014, the LPRP proposed that public officials must declare their property to curb corrupt behavior; any property valued at over 20 million kip (equivalent to approximately 15,000 RMB) must be reported. Lao Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh emphasized at the 2017 All-Party Political Life Mobilization Meeting that corruption, as one of the prominent issues in Party building, “after the Tenth Congress, Party committees and Party organizations at all levels must actively implement and take the lead in studying solutions to prominent issues, and further accelerate the implementation process to effectively address shortcomings in Party work.” In the same year, the “Resolution on Resisting Bureaucracy and Corruption” was promulgated, providing top-level design and institutional arrangements for punishing corruption and for Party renovation and construction. Since the Tenth Congress, a series of rules and regulations for combating corruption have been introduced, stipulating matters such as official vehicles for leading cadres, prohibitions on public officials, and personal affairs, and exploring the establishment of a system for leading cadres to declare personal property, a clean governance responsibility system, and an accountability and responsibility-tracing system. Through severe punishment of corruption, popular support has been further consolidated, the connection between the Party and the masses has been strengthened, and channels for gathering the people’s strength have been unblocked.

三是惩治腐败凝心聚力。贪污腐败问题轻则对国家社会造成严重损失，重则毁坏党的形象，割裂党与人民的联系，使党丧失执政基础。老挝人民革命党十分重视惩治腐败，坚决遏制党员腐化，维护党的威信。1992年老挝人民革命党五届五中全会颁布了《反贪污腐败条例》,此后老挝国家制定并多次修改《反贪污腐败法》,不断完善反腐法律体系。2012年老挝人民革命党中央政治局出台2号文件对原《党员干部行为禁令》进行重新修订，将贪腐行为作为“党员禁令”写入党章，并设立党的检查监督工作和各级纪律检查委员会，明确了党的纪律。从2014年起，老挝人民革命党提出要对公职人员进行财产公示以遏制腐败行为，凡价值超过2000万基普(折合人民币1.5万元)的财产都必须上报。老挝总理潘坎•维帕万在2017年全党政治生活动员会上强调，腐败问题作为党建工作的突出问题之一，“在十大之后，各级党委与党组织要积极贯彻落实，牵头研究突出问题的解决办法，并进一步加快落实进程，切实解决党内工作的短板”。并于同年颁布了《关于抵制官僚主义和贪污腐败的决议》,对惩治贪污腐败、党的革新建设作了顶层设计和制度安排。十大以来，出台了一系列打击腐败的规章制度，对领导干部配车、公职人员禁令、个人事务等问题加以规定，探索建立领导干部个人财产申报制度、廉政建设责任制、追责问责制度等。通过对腐败问题的严惩，进一步聚集了民心，密切了党和人民群众的联系，畅通了人民力量的汇集渠道。

3. Main Experiences of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party in Adhering to the People's Standpoint

三、老挝人民革命党坚持人民立场的主要经验

The LPRP, in nearly 70 years of practical exploration, has consistently adhered to the people’s stand, enriching the theory of the people to gather popular support, perfecting Party building to pool the people’s strength, and addressing governance challenges to follow the people’s will. This has greatly improved the living conditions of the various ethnic groups in Laos and accumulated extensive practical experience.

老挝人民革命党在近70年的实践探索中始终坚持人民立场，丰富人民理论以聚民心，完善党的建设以汇民力，应对执政难题以顺民意，使老挝各族人民的生活状况得到了极大的改善，积累了大量的实践经验。

(I) Establishing the Theory of the People to Gather Popular Support

(一)创立人民理论以聚民心

The fundamental reason the LPRP has been able to achieve its present-day accomplishments lies in its ability to consistently maintain ties with the masses, continuously respond to the needs of the people at different stages of development, elevate the practical exploration of implementing the people’s stand into theory, arm the minds of Party cadres and members with it, serve the interests of the people, and solve concrete practical problems.

老挝人民革命党之所以能够取得今天一系列成就的根本原因，就在于能够始终联系群众，在不同的发展阶段不断回应人民群众的需要，将践行人民立场的实践探索上升为理论，并将其武装于党员干部的头脑，为指导人民利益服务，解决具体现实问题。

First, strengthening the summation of experience to form a systematic theory. The LPRP emphasizes that it must always adhere to the Party’s nature as a proletarian party, uphold Marxism-Leninism and socialist ideals, and attach importance to studying and grasping the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism. Adhering to the Marxist-Leninist viewpoint of the people’s stand, the LPRP has accumulated extensive practical experience in serving the people, uniting and leading the masses in the struggle for liberation during the processes of national liberation, social transformation, and renovation and opening up. [11]11 “Renovation and opening up” (革新开放) is the Lao term for its reform and opening-up policy, analogous to China’s reform and opening up. This has provided the practical foundation and source for the creation and formation of the theory of the people. To fundamentally maintain the people’s stand of governing for the people and founding the Party for the people, it is necessary to summarize and refine practical experience into a systematic theory of the people, using it as a theoretical weapon to unify the thinking of the entire Party and maintain the Party’s advanced nature and purity. The LPRP has sorted out and summarized issues such as perfecting the people’s democratic system, improving the people’s living standards, unblocking channels for gathering the people’s strength, promoting democracy within the Party and in society, and enhancing the Party’s leadership role. It has elevated the exploratory experience of serving the people and governing into theory, forming a theory of the people based on the people’s stand, inheriting the Marxist-Leninist people’s stand, creatively applying Marxism-Leninism to solve local Lao problems, and promoting the localization of Marxism-Leninism.

一是加强经验总结形成系统的理论。老挝人民革命党强调，要始终坚持党的无产阶级政党本质，坚持马列主义和社会主义理想，重视研究和把握马列主义基本原理。老挝人民革命党秉持马克思列宁主义的人民立场观点，在民族解放、社会和革新开放进程中，积攒了大量为人民服务，团结和领导人民群众为解放而斗争的实践经验，为人民理论的创立和形成提供了实践基础和来源。要从根本上永葆执政为民、立党为民的人民立场，就必须将实践经验加以总结提炼成系统的人民理论，将其作为统一全党思想，保持党的先进纯洁的理论武器。老挝人民革命党围绕完善人民民主制度，改善人民的生活水平，畅通人民力量的汇聚渠道，发扬党内和社会民主、发扬党的领导作用等问题进行梳理总结，将为民服务和执政的探索经验上升为理论，形成了以人民立场为基础的人民理论，传承了马克思列宁主义人民立场，创造性地运用马克思列宁主义解决老挝本土问题，推动了马列主义本土化的发展。

Second, using theory to arm Party cadres and members to serve the people. As the backbone and important component of the LPRP, whether Party cadres and members have a firm stand and correct value orientation directly affects the maintenance of the Party’s nature and their ability to serve the people. The LPRP has long been committed to cultivating and building a high-quality, high-standard contingent of Party cadres and members, emphasizing the study of ideological theory for Party members and leading cadres. It selects young, outstanding cadres to study political theory, professional skills, and knowledge in socialist countries such as China and Vietnam, and invites theoretical experts from China and Vietnam to visit Laos to introduce the experiences of reform and opening up and renovation and opening up. Additionally, administrative colleges at all levels have been established within Laos, where Party cadres and members are regularly arranged for study, and young Party members with higher theoretical levels and knowledge and skills are selected to join the cadre ranks, thereby improving the overall theoretical literacy and professional competence of Party cadres and members. At the same time, regulations such as the “Regulations on the Political Responsibility of Senior Leading Cadres” and the “Regulations of the Political Bureau of the LPRP Central Committee on the Political Responsibility of Leading Cadres” have been issued, enhancing the political responsibility awareness and exemplary vanguard consciousness of Party cadres and members, enabling the broad masses of Party cadres and members to correctly establish the people’s stand and strengthen their ability to serve the people. Only by arming the minds of Party cadres and members with the theory of the people, deeply rooting the people’s stand of serving the people and striving for the people’s interests in their hearts, and improving their political-ideological awareness, professional quality, and level, can the work style of Party cadres and members be improved at the ideological source, and the Party’s connection with the people and its advanced nature and purity be forever maintained.

二是利用理论武装党员干部服务人民。党员干部作为老挝人民革命党的骨干力量和重要组成部分，其立场是否坚定、价值取向是否正确都关系着党的性质的保持和为人民服务的本领。老挝人民革命党长期以来致力于培养和建设高质量高水准的党员干部队伍，重视对党员和领导干部的思想理论学习，选派年轻优秀的干部到中国、越南等社会主义国家学习政治理论、专业技能和知识，并邀请中越理论界专家到访老挝介绍改革开放和革新开放的经验。此外，在老挝国内设立各级行政学院，定期安排党员干部进行学习，并选拔具有较高理论水平和知识技能的年轻党员进入干部队列，提升党员干部整体理论素养和业务能力。同时，出台了《关于高级领导干部政治责任的规定》《老挝人民革命党中央政治局关于领导干部政治责任的规定》等规定，增强了党员干部的政治责任意识和模范带头意识，使广大党员干部正确树立了人民立场，增强了为人民服务的本领。只有用人民理论武装党员干部的头脑，使为人民服务、为人民利益而奋斗的人民立场深植于党员干部的心中，提高党员干部的政治思想觉悟、业务素质和水平，才能从思想源头上改进党员干部作风，永葆党与人民的联系和先进纯洁。

Third, emphasizing the explanation and propaganda of theory to educate the people. Whether the masses can grasp theory, this “weapon of critique,” depends crucially on the dissemination and explanation of theory. The process by which the LPRP continuously deepens the localization of Marxism-Leninism is essentially a process of using the Marxist-Leninist people’s stand to educate the masses, unite the masses, and lead the masses in solving Laos’s practical problems. Over the years, the LPRP has regularly propagated the Party’s line, principles, and policies to the people in various forms, transforming them into the people’s own ideological concepts, and organizing and mobilizing the masses to participate in the practice of realizing the Party’s line. The Eleventh Congress of the LPRP formulated eight major policies to further implement the renovation line, one of which is to “give play to the role of mass organizations such as the Lao Front for National Construction” to carry out work in propagating, organizing, and mobilizing the masses. Through the research, propaganda, and education of Marxism-Leninism and Kaysone Phomvihane Thought, [12]12 Kaysone Phomvihane Thought is the official ideological system of the LPRP, named after its long-time leader Kaysone Phomvihane (1920–1992), and is considered a development of Marxism-Leninism applied to Lao conditions. Marxism-Leninism has gradually come to occupy a dominant position in the people’s spiritual world, deepening the guiding role of Marxism-Leninism in the ideological sphere. Through cross-era interpretation, propaganda, and education, the theory of the people has become the ideological foundation for gathering the people’s strength, closely linking the Party with the people, and bringing the people’s role into play.

三是重视理论的阐释宣传以教育人民。能否使人民群众掌握理论这一“批判的武器”,关键在于理论的传播和解释。老挝人民革命党不断深化马克思列宁主义本土化的过程，实质上就是运用马克思列宁主义的人民立场教育群众、团结群众和领导群众解决老挝实际问题的过程。老挝人民革命党多年来以多种形式常态化地对人民群众宣传党的路线方针政策，将其变为人民自身的思想观念，并组织动员人民群众参与实现党的路线的实践中。老挝人民革命党十一大为进一步落实革新路线制定了八大政策，其一就是要“发挥老挝建国阵线等群众组织的作用”,开展宣传、组织、发动群众工作。通过马克思列宁主义和凯山•丰威汉思想的研究和宣传教育，逐步使马克思列宁主义在人民的精神世界中占据了主导地位，深化了马克思列宁主义在意识形态领域的指导地位，人民理论通过跨时代的诠释宣传和教育，成为了凝聚人民力量，密切党与人民关系，发挥人民作用的思想基础。

(II) Perfecting Party Building to Pool the People’s Strength

(二)完善党的建设以汇民力

The key reason the LPRP has been able to lead the people in achieving the accomplishments of the socialist revolution and renovation and opening up is its consistent adherence to the people’s stand in guiding and perfecting the Party’s own building, and through the Party’s own building, enhancing its governing capacity to highlight the people’s stand, thereby pooling powerful popular strength.

老挝人民革命党之所以能够带领人民取得社会主义革命和革新开放的成就，最关键的就是坚持人民立场引领完善党的自身建设，并通过党的自身建设提升党的执政能力凸显人民立场，汇集了强大的人民力量。

On the one hand, adhering to the people’s stand guides the improvement of the Party’s self-building. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has always centered on the masses, adhered to a people-oriented approach, practiced serving the people, implemented the Party’s mass line, relied on the masses, built and developed the Party through mass revolutionary movements, and taken the people’s stand as the fundamental starting point and ultimate goal in its self-building. First, it adheres to the people’s stand in carrying out ideological and theoretical construction. Since the revolutionary era, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has enshrined strengthening the Party’s ideological and theoretical construction in its Party Constitution, and has clarified the important status of the Party’s ideological and theoretical construction in the form of intra-Party regulations. It has made strengthening the Party’s ideological and theoretical construction an important task at each successive Party Congress, emphasizing the strengthening of the study of Marxism-Leninism and Kaysone Phomvihane Thought, “continuing to make new breakthroughs in theoretical thinking, to lay the foundation for enhancing the Party’s wisdom, improving the Party’s leadership capacity, and transforming theoretical achievements into line and policies suited to our country’s environment and actual conditions.” [13]13 Kaysone Phomvihane (1920–1992) was the founder and long-time leader of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, and his thought is the Party’s guiding ideology alongside Marxism-Leninism. Through comprehensive activities to cultivate ideals and convictions, Party members and cadres are made fully aware of the dangers of detaching from and betraying the people, establishing a people’s stand of striving for the people’s interests, and effectively enhancing Party members’ and cadres’ sense of responsibility and service toward the people. Second, it adheres to the people’s stand in strengthening the Party’s political construction. The Party Constitution of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party emphasizes that Party members and cadres should strengthen self-tempering, study Marxism-Leninism and Kaysone Phomvihane Thought, attach importance to studying the Party’s line, principles, policies, and regulations as well as national laws, adhere to the correct political direction and political stand, and unswervingly advance along the path of renovation. [14]14 “Renovation” (革新) refers to Laos’s reform and opening-up policy, initiated in 1986, analogous to China’s reform and opening up. At the same time, it emphasizes the need to be courageous in political self-criticism, constantly transform one’s own shortcomings that run counter to the people’s interests, take the lead in abiding by laws and discipline, and consciously shoulder the responsibility of serving the people.

一方面，坚持人民立场引领完善党的自身建设。老挝人民革命党始终围绕着人民群众，坚持以民为本，践行为民服务，落实党的群众路线，依靠群众，通过群众革命运动建设和发展党，将人民立场作为根本出发点和落脚点进行党的自身建设。其一，坚持人民立场开展思想理论建设。老挝人民革命党自革命年代就把加强党的思想理论建设写入党章，并以党内法规的形式明确了党的思想理论建设的重要地位，并在历次党代会都将加强党的思想理论建设作为重要工作，强调加强对马克思列宁主义及凯山•丰威汉思想的学习，“继续进行理论思维新突破，为提升党的智慧，提高党的领导能力，把理论成果转化为符合我国环境和实际情况的路线政策的能力奠定基础”7。通过全方位开展理想信念的培育活动，使党员干部充分认识到脱离、背离人民的危害，确立为人民利益而奋斗的人民立场，切实增强党员干部对人民的责任意识和服务意识。其二，坚持人民立场加强党的政治建设。老挝人民革命党党章强调，党员干部应加强自我锤炼，学习马克思列宁主义、凯山•丰威汉思想，重视学习党的路线方针政策章程和国家法律，坚持正确的政治方向和政治立场，坚定不移地沿着革新道路前进。同时，强调要在政治上勇于自我批评，不断改造自身与人民利益相悖的不足，带头遵纪守法，自觉肩负为人民服务的责任。

On the other hand, highlighting the people’s value orientation through the Party’s self-building. Strengthening the Party’s self-building and consciously reforming systems and mechanisms that do not meet the people’s needs or the requirements of the Party’s governance of the country, so that they conform to the people’s expectations, the development of the times, and the laws of governance, fundamentally means using the Party’s self-building to highlight the people’s value orientation of a proletarian party. Since its founding, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has taken the liberation of the people and the protection of their fundamental interests as its struggle goals. Together with the broad masses, it has waged arduous struggles against various reactionary forces, including domestic feudal forces, foreign imperialist colonial and aggressive forces, and in the course of revolution has forged close flesh-and-blood ties with the masses, making the Party’s political stand more resolute and establishing and highlighting the value orientation of serving the people. During the revolutionary period, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party gave clear instructions on the direction of the Party’s self-building: “It must be closely linked with the mass struggle movement, building the Party into a party that is strong and stable politically, ideologically, and organizationally.” The Third Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party [15]15 The Third Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party was held in 1982, during which the Party formally adopted the renovation policy. further emphasized that the Party’s self-building should achieve “three combinations”: combining with the people’s movement, with the reform of government institutions and mass organizations, and with improving the quality of Party members and cadres. Strengthening the Party’s self-building—firmly adhering to the people’s stand ideologically, smoothing the operational system for serving the people organizationally, getting closer to the people’s lives in work style, and eliminating phenomena that deviate from the people’s interests in punishing corruption—essentially means taking the people’s interests as the fundamental principle in all work and focusing on solving the people’s practical problems.

另一方面，以党的自身建设凸显人民价值取向。加强党的自身建设，自觉变革不符合人民需要和党治国理政要求的制度和机制，使之顺应人民的期待，时代的发展和执政的规律，从根本上说就是要以党的自身建设凸显无产阶级政党的人民价值取向。老挝人民革命党自成立之日起就将人民解放和维护人民的根本利益作为斗争目标，同广大人民一道与本国封建势力、外国帝国主义殖民侵略势力等各种反动势力进行艰苦卓绝的斗争，在革命中密切了与人民群众的血肉联系，使得党的政治立场更加坚定，为了人民的价值取向得以确立并凸显。革命时期，老挝人民革命党就对党的自身建设方向做了明确指示：“必须与群众斗争运动紧密联系，把党建设成政治上、思想上和组织上稳固坚强的党”。老挝人民革命党三大更是强调党的自身建设要做到与人民运动、政府机构和群众组织改革、提高党员和干部素质“三个相结合”。加强党的自身建设，在思想上牢固坚持人民立场，在组织上畅通为民服务的运行体制，在作风上更加贴近人民群众的生活，在惩治腐败上杜绝背离人民利益的现象，本质上就是要一切工作以人民群众的利益作为根本原则，着力解决人民群众的现实问题。

Today, with the continuous development of economic globalization, international competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and the Western capitalist “peaceful evolution” [16]16 “Peaceful evolution” is a term used by socialist states to describe the strategy of Western capitalist powers to subvert socialist systems through non-military means, such as ideological infiltration and economic pressure. of socialism is taking on new forms. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party still faces many unprecedented challenges and continues to bear a major, comprehensive, and arduous historical mission. To ensure that the Party’s class attributes and nature remain unchanged over the long term, it must adhere to the people’s stand to guide and improve the Party’s self-building, and firmly uphold the people’s stand of Marxism-Leninism.

如今，伴随着经济全球化的不断发展，国际竞争局势愈发激烈，西方资本主义对社会主义的“和平演变”呈现新的变化，老挝人民革命党仍面临着许多前所未有的挑战，肩负着重大、全面和艰巨的历史使命依旧未变。要使党的阶级属性和性质长期不变，就必须坚持人民立场引领完善党的自身建设，坚定马克思列宁主义的人民立场。

(3) Responding to Risks and Challenges to Follow the Will of the People

(三)应对风险挑战以顺民意

“The Party’s line is not copied from books; it requires effort and energy, after grasping the actual conditions and basic characteristics of our country’s national conditions, people’s conditions, social history, etc., to be formulated through research, exploration, and thinking.” The reason the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has been able to lead the people to make significant progress in socialist revolution and renovation and opening up is, in the final analysis, that it has adhered to the people’s stand of Marxism-Leninism, taken the protection of the people’s fundamental interests as the starting point and ultimate goal in responding to risks and challenges, conformed to the people’s will and voice, and won popular support.

“党的路线不是从书本上抄下来的，而是要下功夫花力气，在掌握我国的国情、民情和社会历史等实际情况和基本特点后，经过研究、探索和思考制定出来的。”老挝人民革命党之所以能够带领人民在社会主义革命和革新开放中取得长足进步，归根结底就是坚持了马克思列宁主义的人民立场，将维护人民群众的根本利益作为应对风险挑战的出发点和最终目的，顺应了人民的意愿和呼声，赢得了民众支持。

On the one hand, taking the protection of the people’s fundamental interests as the starting point for responding to risks and challenges. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has always adhered to the people’s stand, using it as the foothold and starting point for responding to all risks and challenges, continuously improving the Party’s various capabilities, and protecting the people’s fundamental interests. From the “First Five-Year Plan” to the “Ninth Five-Year Plan,” [17]17 The “First Five-Year Plan” (1981–1985) and “Ninth Five-Year Plan” (2021–2025) are national economic and social development plans of Laos. the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has always prioritized issues related to the people’s interests, formulating corresponding development goals, achieving multiple increases in Laos’s gross national product, national income, and industrial output value, greatly promoting Laos’s economic development, and successfully responding to domestic and international risks and challenges such as economic backwardness, intense ideological struggle, and the Southeast Asian financial crisis. History of socialist development at home and abroad fully proves that only by continuously improving the people’s living standards and conforming to the people’s expectations and will can the superiority of the socialist system and the scientific nature of Marxism-Leninism be fully demonstrated, and can the Party confidently respond to all internal and external risks and challenges, and can the people’s support and endorsement of the Party and their confidence and belief in socialism be continuously strengthened. In the new period, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party still faces many governance challenges, such as poverty alleviation, structural problems in economic development, public health events like the COVID-19 pandemic, and peaceful evolution by Western countries. Only by taking the protection of the people’s fundamental interests as the basic starting point for governing the country and adhering to the people’s stand can it gather broader, more genuine, and stronger people’s strength, consolidate the Party’s class base and mass base for governing and rejuvenating the country, and provide a continuous source of momentum for responding to risks and challenges.

一方面，将维护人民群众的根本利益作为应对风险挑战的出发点。老挝人民革命党始终坚持人民立场，并以此作为应对一切风险挑战的立足点和出发点，不断提升党的各项能力，维护人民群众的根本利益。从“一五计划”到“九五计划”,老挝人民革命党始终把与人民群众利益相关的问题放在首位，制定相应的发展目标，使老挝国民生产总值、国民收入、产业产值等都实现了倍增，极大地促进了老挝经济发展，成功地应对了经济水平落后、意识形态斗争激烈、东南亚金融危机等国内外风险挑战。国内外社会主义发展的历史充分证明，只有不断提高人民的生活水平，顺应人民群众的期待和意愿，社会主义制度的优越性和马克思列宁主义的科学性才能得以充分彰显，党才能自如地应对一切内外部风险挑战，人民群众对党的支持和拥护，对社会主义的信心信念才会不断坚定。在新时期，老挝人民革命党仍旧面临着诸如脱贫减贫、经济发展存在结构性问题、新冠疫情等公共卫生事件、西方国家和平演变等众多治国理政的难题，只有将维护人民群众的根本利益作为治国理政的基本出发点，坚持人民立场，才能凝聚更广泛更真实更强大的人民力量，夯实党执政兴国的阶级基础和群众基础，为应对风险挑战提供源源不断的动力。

On the other hand, regarding the protection of the people’s fundamental interests as the ultimate goal of responding to risks and challenges. The ultimate goal of the Party’s governance of the country and its response to all risks and challenges is to protect the people’s fundamental interests. This is not only a direct manifestation of the political and class attributes of a proletarian party but also a fundamental requirement of adhering to the people’s stand of Marxism-Leninism. Since Laos’s renovation and opening up, it has experienced impacts on the socialist cause and the ideological sphere, such as the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, the Asian financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, under the leadership of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, it has still achieved national and social stability, sustained economic development, and a thriving socialist cause. “Despite facing many difficulties and challenges, we firmly believe that we can overcome all kinds of difficulties, achieve greater accomplishments, and ultimately bring our country to the forefront of socialism.” Historical facts show that only when the entire people, under the Party’s leadership, apply the stand, viewpoints, and methods of Marxism-Leninism to solving the country’s practical problems, adhere to the people’s stand, and take the protection of the people’s fundamental interests as the starting point and ultimate goal in responding to all risks and challenges, can the success of socialist revolution and renovation and opening up be achieved. Therefore, in the face of increasingly complex domestic and international situations and new governance challenges, it is essential to always take the protection of the people’s fundamental interests as the goal, continuously strengthen the Party’s ties with the people, and accumulate people’s strength for governing the country.

另一方面，将维护人民群众的根本利益视为应对风险挑战的最终目的。党治国理政，应对一切风险挑战的最终目的就是维护人民群众的根本利益。这不仅是无产阶级政党政治属性、阶级属性的直接体现，也是坚持马克思列宁主义人民立场的根本要求。老挝革新开放以来，经历了苏联解体、东欧剧变、亚洲金融危机、新冠肺炎疫情等对社会主义事业和意识形态领域的冲击，但在老挝人民革命党的领导下依旧实现了国家和社会安定、经济持续发展，社会主义事业欣欣向荣。“尽管面对众多困难与挑战，但是我们坚信我们一定能够克服种种困难，取得更大的成就，使我国最终步入社会主义的前沿阵地。”历史事实表明，只有全国人民在党的领导下，将马克思列宁主义的立场、观点和方法运用于本国实际问题的解决之中，坚持人民立场，将维护人民群众的根本利益作为应对一切风险挑战的出发点和最终目标，才能实现社会主义革命、革新开放的成功。因而，在面对日益复杂的国内外形势，面对新的治国理政的难题时，要时刻将维护人民群众的根本利益作为目标，不断加强党与人民的联系，为治国理政积蓄人民力量。

Online Editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心