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.

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.

[1] The ICP was tasked "to wipe out feudal remnants, to distribute land to the tillers, to overthrow imperialism and to make Indochina completely independent.

[3] According to political scientist Joseph J. Zasloff, "Eliminating the 'Indochinese' label of the Communist party seemed designed to appeal to nationalist sentiments in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

"[3] In the immediate aftermath of the 2nd National Congress, a Viet-Lao-Khmer alliance was announced which declared a shared commitment to fighting against French colonialism and American imperialism in the region.

[3] By 1952, the WPV established the Committee for the Organization of the Party, which was composed of five members: Kaysone Phomvihan (as Secretary), Nouhak Phoumsavan, Sisavath Keobounphan, Boun Phommahaxai, and Khamsen.

[5] The North Vietnamese reacted by increasing their support to the LPP and its military, the Pathet Lao;[6] and by the early 1960s the party controlled nearly half the country.

[9] Reacting to unfolding events, the party, through the Pathet Lao, seized control of the roads leading to Vientiane, effectively cutting off supplies to the capital.

[23] Kaysone Phomvihan, in his Political Report of the 3rd Central Committee, noted that "Our main shortcomings lie in subjectivism and haste, in our inclination to abolish the non-socialist economic sectors promptly ... We are bent on egalitarianism.

[24] The most important, unspoken reason for these changes was a drastic decline in foreign assistance on which Laos totally depended, of which 70 per cent originated from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc.

[25] The LPRP did not budge, and Thongsouk Saisangkhi together with Vice-Minister of Economics and Planning Latsami Khamphoui and Ministry of Justice official Pheng Sakchittaphong were imprisoned in October 1990, and sentenced to fourteen years in prison in November 1992.

[36] This tendency continued under the stewardship of LPRP General Secretary Choummaly Sayasone,[36] whose brother-in-law Khammeung Phongthady was elected to the 9th Central Committee and was reassigned from his governorship of Vientiane province to be cabinet chief of the Office of the Presidency.

[40] Writing in Politics and Reform in Laos, Stuart-Fox remarks that "senior Party members [after the revolution] soon began to dispense patronage in the traditional Lao way, rewarding extended family members and loyal retainers with favours and jobs, for which they were often poorly qualified, to build a political support base ... Ironically, this process of political-economic elite formation was powerfully assisted by the introduction of the economic reforms of the 1980s".

[41] Stuart-Fox contends that Laos's lack of a state bureaucratic tradition throughout its history has forced Laotians to rely on their extended families and friends.

To express this another way, the LPRP provides a disciplining mechanism for the patron-client relations that continue to function throughout society, which in turn depends on party connections.

[48] The intention is to ensure "the party's all-around absolute and direct leadership over all links, from the mapping out of lines and policies to the organisation of execution and control.

"[50] According to legal scholar Bui Ngoc Son, Article 3 "is not merely expressive of the Marxist orthodoxy of party vanguard but also responsive to the local concern of integration of ethnic diversity.

"[51] The Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF), the military, is tasked by the constitution to defend the gains of the revolution and the achievements of LPRP rule.

"[56] She notes that National Assembly chairwoman Pany Yathotou has sought to simplify the process whereby constituents can contact and inform their elected representatives.

"[60] LPRP study material states that earlier revolutionary heroes against French oppression—such as Ong Keo, Kommadam, Chao-Fa Patchai, and Pho Kadout—"were defeated because there was no Party to lead the struggle.

[63] The DPSC is the highest decision-making institution regarding military and security affairs within the party, and controls the operations of the Lao People's Armed Forces.

[69] Kaysone Phomvihane said as much in 1970: "The resounding victories of the Indochinese peoples in the past quarter-century cannot be separated from the introduction of Marxism–Leninism into Indochina [and that it] provides guidance for its action and points out practical ways to advance the revolution in Laos.

[68] In December 1975, at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 2nd Central Committee, the party made clear its intention to skip the capitalist phase in its advance towards socialism.

[70] The reigning belief was that the country's low level of political and cultural maturity, the LPRP's weak organisational capacity, and the state sector's immaturity made it impossible to skip capitalism and immediately initiate socialist construction.

"[76] At the 8th Plenary Session of the 2nd Central Committee, Kaysone Phomvihane told the plenum that the two-line struggle between socialism and capitalism had entered a new and complex stage.

[77] In reaction to opposition from party officials, especially those centred around Nouhak Phoumsavanh, Kaysone Phomvihane introduced the term New Thinking into ideological discourse at the 4th National Congress.

[80] LPRP Chairman Khamtai Siphandon therefore initiated a campaign to strengthen socialist values, and told a party gathering that "to control the grassroots and people is a serious struggle of 'who will win over whom?'

[81] It decided that as long as the party's policies were "(i) developing economic power; (ii) strengthening the state and ensuring political stability; and (iii) improving living standards and creating benefits for the people" it was socialist.

[81] However, by the 9th National Congress, LPRP General Secretary Choummaly Sayasone stressed the importance of strengthening ideological work and understanding:[81] "[We must] continue to adhere firmly to Marxism–Leninism and socialist ideals, pay attention to research and grasp some [of the] basic principles of Marxism–Leninism, then apply them creatively and appropriately to the real situation of our state by adjusting the [party] line to the requirement of national development.

[69] The seminar extolled him "as the key thinker and theorist of the party, the initiator of the 1979 reforms, and as an heir to Marx and Vladimir Lenin who creatively applied Marxism-Leninism to Laos.