Politics in the region have mirrored the divide along these two groups of countries. The poorest were the state-socialist countries. They espoused the socialist experiment, which not only contributed to slowing their economic development but also institutionalized strongly centralized and authoritarian political systems that changed very little once they were established. Southeast Asian communist countries outlived the fall of communist regimes that swept the former Soviet Union and Eastern. Instead, Vietnam and Laos maintained the supremacy of the communist party and the institutional configurations of communist regimes while slowly introducing more debate, more policy scrutiny and especially economic reforms. Myanmar was already somewhat different, as it adopted its own brand of socialism introduced by a military dominated regime. The military remained dominant although the regime first shed its socialist ideology and experiment with a closed economy, then recently allowed the election of a civilian led government, but still led by former junta leaders. Cambodia also adopted a different path as two competing state-socialist experiments succeeded one another: first the radical Khmer Rouge experimentation with a blend of various socialist projects harshly implemented within a few months with disastrous results; second a more standard communist regime under Vietnamese control. Cambodia was the only country with much political change as the Vietnam-controlled regime failed with to garner sufficient power to eliminate its opponents, including royalists and the Khmer Rouge. Civil war ensued, then the United Nations attempted to craft a new democratic regime. Divisive politics contributed to its failure, while Hun Sen, the leader of the former Vietnam-controlled communist regime gained the upper hand over rivals and gradually consolidated his authoritarian rule. Where political change occurred, state-socialism gave way to alternative forms of authoritarian or semi-democratic rule rather than new democracies.