This paper analyses the European Union’s (EU’s) democratising agenda within the frame of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in Laos. In particular, it focuses on the requirement for the participation of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the VPA and the Lao state actors’ responses to this requirement. I frame the VPA’s democratising agenda and its conditionality of civil society participation as acts of governmentality exercised by the EU in Laos. This EU governmentality is exercised through the EU and EU member states’ funded development partner in the frame of their project supporting the FLEGT VPA process in Laos. The Lao government responses and strategies to the EU governmentality resulted on the one hand in the Lao state’s governmentality towards domestic CSOs, and in counter-conduct (i.e. a subtle and sly resistance to some aspects of the VPA) on the other. First, by tracing the establishment of the Lao FLEGT Civil Society Organisations Network (FLEGT CSO Network), I highlight the trend of depoliticisation and rendering technical, where the EU-funded development partner, with full support and backing from the Lao state, trained the CSOs in various VPA and timber legality issues. In the training, the CSOs were given specific roles and tasks, building up their fields of expertise, and were integrated in the formal VPA organisational structures, which allowed for their scrutiny and tight survelience by the state. Second, I analyse the counter-conduct by the Lao government against a civil society that is independent from the state, which the government manifested through further disempowerment of CSOs and tightening of the CSO regulation shortly after the FLEGT CSO Network was established, while at the same time simulating democratisation by welcoming CSOs’ participation in the VPA. Summoning CSOs as compliant actors and unpaid service providers working for and alongside the state was in part enabled by the VPA’s own rendering technical approach. Hence, the EU’s VPA governmentality and the Lao state counter-conduct mutually reinforced one another, even if their initial agendas around democratisation and CSO engagement in forest governance and the VPA diverged.

中文翻译：

---

通过技术统治实现民主？在老挝的欧盟 FLEGT VPA 中将民间社会重塑为国家监控的无偿服务提供者

本文在老挝的欧盟森林执法、治理和贸易 (FLEGT) 自愿伙伴关系协议 (VPA) 框架内分析了欧盟 (EU) 的民主化议程。它特别关注民间社会组织（CSO）参与 VPA 的要求以及老挝国家行为者对此要求的回应。我将越南人民军的民主化议程及其公民社会参与的条件描述为欧盟在老挝实施的治理行为。欧盟的这一治理权是通过欧盟和欧盟成员国资助的发展伙伴在其支持老挝 FLEGT VPA 流程的项目框架内行使的。老挝政府对欧盟治理的反应和策略一方面导致了老挝国家对国内公民社会组织的治理，另一方面导致了反行为（即对VPA某些方面的微妙和狡猾的抵制）。首先，通过追溯老挝 FLEGT 民间社会组织网络（FLEGT CSO 网络）的建立，我强调了非政治化和技术化的趋势，欧盟资助的发展伙伴在老挝国家的全力支持和支持下，培训了民间社会组织处理各种 VPA 和木材合法性问题。在培训中，公民社会组织被赋予了特定的角色和任务，建立了自己的专业领域，并被纳入正式的越南人民军组织结构中，从而接受国家的审查和严格监控。其次，我分析了老挝政府针对独立于国家的公民社会的反制行为，即在 FLEGT 公民社会组织网络成立后不久，政府通过进一步剥夺公民社会组织的权力并收紧公民社会组织的监管来体现。同时通过欢迎公民社会组织参与VPA来模拟民主化。召唤公民社会组织作为合规行为者和无偿服务提供者为国家工作并与国家并肩工作，这在一定程度上是由 VPA 自己的渲染技术方法实现的。因此，欧盟的 VPA 治理和老挝国家的反行为相辅相成，即使它们围绕民主化和公民社会组织参与森林治理和 VPA 的最初议程存在分歧。