The key roles of religion, foreign influence, and secular education are presented as they relate to the changing value systems and to the individual mobility. Finally the clash and interaction of the three types of governmental systems: Royal traditional, Western Parliamentary, and Communist oriented are considered. There is no attempt to give an up to date analysis of the turbulent situation in Laos but rather to examine fundamental patterns of governmental structure on the national and local levels and correlate these with traditional family structure and observations on Lao character.