History of Costa Rica (XX-XXI centuries)
In the twentieth century in Costa Rica there were three breaks of the constitutional order, one in 1917, another in 1919 and most recently in 1948. The latter was carried out primarily, according to the rebels in order to defend the transparency of the vote against alleged fraud, but really the causes are varied and complex.
In 1948 there is a civil war between two camps, supporters of Otilio Ulate for the Partido Union Nacional and its allies of the Social Democratic Party and Democratic Party led by José Figueres Ferrer (Figuerismo) against the president Dr. Calderon Guardia of the Republican National Guard (Calderonismo) allied with the communist of the Vanguardia Popular Party. As a result the civil war was won the Figuerismo that eventually would create the dominant National Liberation Party.
On December 1 in 1948, José Figueres Ferrer, the leader of the victorious revolution, abolished the army, which Costa Rica became the first republic in the world that do not to have armed forces. Since 1948, two political sides will find the power in the country, the side of Figueres represented by PLN (Social Democrat), and the band of Calderon represented by different parties and coalitions including the National Union Party, United Coalition and the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), generally defined as Christian Democrats and conservatives. Since the foundation of the PUSC in 1983 in Costa Rica was established a two-party system that had prevailed since then until 2002, where the two major parties in power dominated the national policy (for that reason was applied the nickname of PLUSC). In 1987, the president of Costa Rica, Dr Óscar Arias Sánchez, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Costa Rica ’s entry to the twenty-first century has been marked by a questioning of their democratic model. The court cases of corruption and illicit enrichment that followed three former presidents: Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría, who were arrested in late 2004 and are awaiting trial, and José María Figueres Olsen who was investigated by a legislative commission but refused to return to the country, taking advantage of the absence of deportation in the European countries. So far is unknown where he is because he never reported or attempted to communicate to prove his “innocence” against the accusation of corruption.
The two-party system began to decline in 2002 when new political forces, especially the Citizen Action Party and the Libertarian Movement, began to take prominence, while the traditional parties lost electoral weight (something similar to what happened recently in almost all of Latin America). For example, the PLN, perhaps the most traditional major parties, has been losing support election dramatically since 1998 and was kept out of power for eight years and although it won the national elections of 2006, it did it with the closest margin in the history of Costa Rica (less than 1%) over the PAC gaining just 25% of voters (in an election with an abstention rate of 30%).
Moreover, the PUSC has been in a debacle, its candidate for the national elections of 2006 had 5% of the votes, while in the municipal elections went from 48 to only 11 mayors. Some Costa Rica analysts believe that this situation is largely due to corruption scandals that have been involved former presidents and senior leaders of the two traditional parties, such as Caja-Fischell and ICE-Alcatel. Furthermore, both the PAC and the ML have shown steady growth, the ML went from a deputy in 1998 and 1% intend of vote for its presidential candidate, to 6 deputies in 2002, and again 6 at 2006 with an intention to 8% for its presidential candidate. The PAC party of Costa Rica with only two years won 16% of the votes in the elections of 2002, getting 14 deputies, and for the second election in which it participated, in 2006 reached 17 deputies and 24% of presidential votes (1% less than PLN).
