Governance in Lao PDR has two streams—the National Assembly with 109
representatives and the Central Party Committee. There are four tiers of government—
National with a President and a Prime Minister at the top, Provincial, District and the village
administrations. The National Assembly has legislative powers but there are no equivalent
bodies at the lower levels. There is the capital city of Vientiane, 16 provinces—including
Champasack that includes Pakse District, more than 140 districts—10 of which are in
Champasack province, and almost 9,000 villages—42 of which are in Pakse District. The
Law on Local Administration 2 was passed in 2004, and consolidated the system of local
governance. It identified a provincial-level tier that included cities (nakhone) and a district level
one that introduced municipalities (thetsaban)—Table 1. To date, neither cities nor
municipalities have been set up.