National Republican Party (Costa Rica)

Last updated
National Republican Party
Partido Republicano Nacional
Leaders Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno
León Cortés Castro
Rafael Calderón
Teodoro Picado Michalski
Founded1901 (1901)
Dissolved1952 (1952)
Succeeded by National Unification Party
(Not legal successor)
Ideology Calderonism
Christian democracy
Christian socialism
Left-wing populism
Political position Left-wing [1]
Colors  Blue   Yellow   Red
Party flag
Bandera Partido Republicano Nacional (1932-1952) Costa Rica.svg

The National Republican Party (Spanish : Partido Republicano Nacional; PRN) was a political party in Costa Rica.

Contents

History

A loosely liberal party was founded under the leadership of Máximo Fernández Alvarado known simply as Republican Party in 1901, its candidate was Fernández himself three times. The party's candidate Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno was elected president in 1910. A non-elected president member of the party was Alfredo González Flores who became the only president of Costa Rica appointed by the Congress. [2]

After electing Jiménez on three occasions, the party also secured the election of León Cortés Castro in 1936, Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia in 1940 and Teodoro Picado Michalski in 1944 becoming a dominant party. During Calderón's leadership the party moved toward Christian democracy and Christian socialism making some of the country's first social reforms in alliance with the Communist Party.

In 1940, the National Republican Party won the elections. Criticism over corruption, authoritarianism and voting fraud against the party and the results of the 1948 election in which the republican-dominated Congress overturned the elections because its candidate Calderón apparently lost because of the 1948 Civil War. [2] After that the party was banned for a while and its leaders Calderón and Picado in exile. The party would still remain relevant in the political system once democracy was restored but would only attain power in coalition with liberal forces (the party endorsed the successful candidacies of Mario Echandi and José Joaquín Trejos as part of alliances with other parties), eventually disappearing. [2]

Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier (Calderón's son) founded a new party named Social Christian Republican Party in 2014 using the traditional party's colors and flag.

Ideology

While the party was initially associated with coffee growing oligarchs and liberal elites and supported policies favorable towards these groups, the party moved towards Catholic socialist principles and alliance with the communists in the 1940s. [3] Under the presidency of Calderón Guardia, the party "eschewed the support of the coffee oligarchy and developed a broad coalition, which included the Catholic Church and the Communist Party", and the party reoriented itself as "an instrument of the working and middle groups". [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier</span> President of Costa Rica from 1990 to 1994

Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier was President of Costa Rica from 1990 to 1994. He was the presidential candidate of the Social Christian Unity Party for the national elections held in February 2010, but resigned his candidacy on 5 October 2009, when he was sentenced to five years in prison for two counts of corruption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teodoro Picado Michalski</span> President of Costa Rica from 1944 to 1948

Teodoro Picado Michalski was a Costa Rican politician who served as the president of Costa Rica from 1944 to 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Liberation Party (Costa Rica)</span> Political party of Costa Rica

The National Liberation Party, nicknamed the verdiblancos, is a political party in Costa Rica. The party is a member of the Socialist International. Social-democratic by statute, the party has a few internal factions, including liberals, Third Way supporters, centrists, and social conservatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Christian Unity Party</span> Political party in Costa Rica

The Social Christian Unity Party is a centre-right political party in Costa Rica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Costa Rican Civil War</span> 1948 conflict in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican Civil War took place from 12 March to 24 April 1948. The conflict followed the presidential elections of 8 February 1948, in which opposition candidate Otilio Ulate defeated the ruling party's Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia. The pro-government representatives who dominated the Legislative Assembly alleged that that Ulate's victory was fraudulent, and on 1 March, the legislature voted to annul the results of the election. This triggered an armed uprising led by José Figueres Ferrer, a businessman who had not participated in the elections, against the government of President Teodoro Picado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Union Party (Costa Rica)</span> Right wing party in Costa Rica

The National Union Party is the name of several parties in Costa Rica, generally located on the centre-right of the political spectrum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia</span> President of Costa Rica from 1940 to 1944

Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia was a Costa Rican medical doctor and politician, who served as President from 1940 to 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Unification Party (Costa Rica)</span> Political party in Costa Rica

National Unification Party was a political party in Costa Rica from 1966 to 1978. It was founded by Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia and Otilio Ulate Blanco, and espoused social welfare and a free market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1940 Costa Rican general election</span>

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 11 February 1940. Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia of the Independent National Republican Party won the presidential election. Voter turnout was 81% in the presidential election and 66% in the parliamentary election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1944 Costa Rican general election</span>

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 13 February 1944. Teodoro Picado Michalski of the Victory Bloc won the presidential election with 75% of the vote. Voter turnout was 43%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1953 Costa Rican general election</span>

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 26 July 1953. José Figueres Ferrer of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 67% in the presidential election and 68% in the parliamentary election. Local elections were also held.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1986 Costa Rican general election</span>

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 2 February 1986. Óscar Arias of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 82%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1990 Costa Rican general election</span>

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 4 February 1990. Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 81.8%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Costa Rican Republic</span> 1848–1948 state in Central America

The First Costa Rican Republic is the name given to the historical period between the proclamation of the Republic of Costa Rica in the 1848 reformed Constitution and the official decree by then President José María Castro Madriz on 31 August 1848 and the Costa Rican Civil War of 1948 which ended with the enactment of the current 1949 Constitution on 7 November 1949 starting the Second Costa Rican Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberalism in Costa Rica</span> Overview of liberalism in Costa Rica

Liberalism in Costa Rica is a political philosophy with a long and complex history. Liberals were the hegemonic political group for most of Costa Rica's history especially during the periods of the Free State and the First Republic, however, as the liberal model exhausted itself and new more left-wing reformist movements clashed during the Costa Rican Civil War liberalism was relegated to a secondary role after the Second Costa Rican Republic with the development of Costa Rica's Welfare State and its two-party system controlled by social-democratic and Christian democratic parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberal State</span> 1870–1940 period of Costa Rica

The Liberal State is the historical period in Costa Rica that occurred approximately between 1870 and 1940. It responded to the hegemonic dominion in the political, ideological and economic aspects of liberal philosophy. It is considered a period of transcendental importance in Costa Rican history, as it's when the consolidation of the National State and its institutions finally takes place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reform State</span> Period in Costa Rican history

The Reform State or Reformist State is the period in 20th-century Costa Rican history when the country switched from the uncontrolled capitalism and laissez-faire approach of the Liberal State into a more economically progressive Welfare State. It began about 1940 during the presidency of social reformer Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia, and ended in the 1980s with the neoliberal reforms inherent in the Washington Consensus that began after the government of Luis Alberto Monge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Founding Junta of the Second Republic</span> 1948–1949 government of Costa Rica

The Founding Junta of the Second Republic was a de facto government which existed in the Republic of Costa Rica from May 8, 1948, to November 8, 1949, with the overthrow of the constitutional president Teodoro Picado Michalski, by a group of revolutionaries headed by José Figueres Ferrer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calderonism</span>

Calderonism or Calderonismo is a political and ideological doctrine of Costa Rica, which emerged in the 1940s under the leadership of caudillo Dr. Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia, before, during and after he was president with his National Republican Party, and which was continued by various political forces such as Unity Coalition, National Unification Party and the current Social Christian Unity Party and its split the Social Christian Republican Party. It is together with Liberacionismo one of the two traditional political tendencies of Costa Rican politics, with which it represented a certain type of Costa Rican bipartisanship from 1986 to 2002 and revolves around the Calderón family. It is a form of populist and Catholic Christian socialism very similar to Argentine Peronism. Considered a progressive interpretation of the Catholic social teaching, as well as a form of socialism, Calderonism identified itself with comunismo a la tica, defined as indigenous and Catholic communism exclusive to Costa Rica. Because of this, Calderonism is also referred to as calderocomunismo.

References

  1. Carlisle, Rodney P. (2005). Encyclopedia of Politics: The Left and The Right. Vol. 1. Sage Publications, Inc. p. 74. ISBN   1-4129-0409-9.
  2. 1 2 3 Booth, John A.; yes (January 2008). Paul Webb and Stephen White (ed.). Political Parties in Costa Rica: Democratic Stability and Party System Change in a Latin American Context (1 ed.). Oxford: Oxford Scholarship Online. ISBN   9780199289653 . Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  3. Cabrera Geserick, Marco Antonio (April 2013). The Legacy of the Filibuster War: National Identity, Collective Memory, and Cultural Anti-Imperialism (PDF). Lexington Books. p. 298. ISBN   978-1-4985-5982-9.
  4. Wilson, Bruce M. (1998). Costa Rica: Politics, Economics, and Democracy. Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 32. ISBN   1-55587-485-1.