Neoliberalizing Authoritarian Environmental Governance in (Post)Socialist Laos

The (post)socialist nation of Laos has pursued neoliberal economic reforms over the past decade that have facilitated the concession of state lands to foreign resource investors for mining, hydropower, and plantation projects. Five percent of the national territory has been ceded and tens of thousands of peasants have been displaced from their customary lands. In this article, I argue that the development of the resource sector has been facilitated by a political–economic regime of neoliberal authoritarianism. Resource extraction is driven by neoliberal economic policies that prize rapid gross domestic product growth, foreign resource investment, and wage-based rural development. This emerging neoliberalism, however, is matched with and dependent on state authoritarianism. The state seeks to assert control over rural lands throughout the country and often peasants are displaced from using these lands when heavy-handed state coercion and repression of peasant resistance are applied. This is particularly apparent in the establishment of industrial tree plantation territories in southern Laos. Efforts by civil society organizations to highlight these injustices and protect rural land rights are often silenced by the state. Fissures in the neoliberalization of authoritarian development are being exposed, however, due to new forms of resistance among the peasantry that threaten its future viability. Key Words: authoritarianism, Laos, neoliberalism, postsocialism, resource extraction.