Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0096/00962.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 24KB | 385 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00962}
$Pretitle{290}
$Title{Costa Rica
Chapter 1C.   Foundations of Democracy}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert Rinehart}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{costa
united
government
political
rica
states
president
jimenez
election
liberal}
$Date{1983}
$Log{Figure 6.*0096201.scf
}
Country:     Costa Rica
Book:        Costa Rica, A Country Study
Author:      Robert Rinehart
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1983

Chapter 1C.   Foundations of Democracy

     After Guardia's death in 1882, Fernandez Oreamuno, the dictator's
brother-in-law and commander of the army, assumed the presidency. When he
died in 1885, he was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Bernardo Soto Alfaro.
The political dynasty founded by Guardia ruled despotically but instituted a
number of important reforms. Soto, for example, created Costa Rica's free
and compulsory public school system. In 1888 he closed down the University
of Santo Tomas, in part because Jesuit influence there was considered so
strong, but also to concentrate public expenditures on developing primary and
secondary education. He ensured constitutional transition of government when
he stepped down as president in 1889 by sponsoring the first election
characterized by full freedom of the press, frank debates by rival candidates,
and an honest tabulation of the vote.

     Before 1889 elections in Costa Rica had been indirect and largely
noncompetitive. Initially the head of state had been chosen by the congress,
and after 1871 the relatively small number of enfranchised citizens voted for
local electors who, in turn, chose regional electors, who finally elected the
president and members of congress. Up to 1889 there had been 24 presidents, 11
of whom had been indirectly elected and seven who had come to power through
force. Six had been designated as "temporary" presidents, appointed for brief
periods. Elections remained indirect for some years after 1889, but a much
larger section of the population became politically active, and political
leaders were compelled to take popular sentiment into account.

The Liberal Ascendancy

     Soto's candidate was defeated in the 1889 election by Jose Joaquin
Rodriguez Zeledon, and the first peaceful transition of power from a ruling
group to the opposition took place. The passing of Guardia family rule also
brought to prominence the group of young liberals-the so-called Generation of
'89-who would govern Costa Rica and dominate its political life for all but a
short time over the next 50 years.

     Rodriguez' political lineage reached back to the old liberal
establishment that had controlled the country before the Guardia regime. But
he soon alienated public opinion by his dictatorial methods and his refusal to
cooperate with the congress, which he dismissed in 1892. His handpicked
successor, Rafael Yglesias Castro, was strongly challenged in the 1894
presidential campaign by a candidate nominated by the PUC, Jose Gregorio
Trejos Gutierrez. Despite voting fraud perpetrated by the government, Trejos
Gutierrez still won a plurality of the votes. Because no candidate had a
majority, the election was thrown into the newly seated congress, which chose
Yglesias as the next president. A revolt in the countryside against the
decision compromised the PUC, whose leaders were arrested, and the party was
subsequently dissolved.

     Yglesias approved the construction of a rail line to the Pacific,
encouraged agricultural and commercial development, and reformed the currency,
placing it on the gold standard. Like Rodriguez, his predecessor and patron,
he governed in an authoritarian manner and succeeded in having the
constitution amended, allowing the president to succeed himself in 1898. When
it became apparent that the 1902 election would be divisive, Yglesias and
Soto, as the leader of the opposition, agreed on a compromise candidate,
Ascension Esquivel Ibarra.

     The president initiated an era of democratic reforms and advancement in
education that was carried on by his successor, Cleto Gonzalez Viquez, who was
elected in 1906 by the congress after a five-way race had failed to produce a
majority candidate. Gonzalez Viquez had received the highest number of votes,
but his election was made possible only after Esquivel had exiled the three
candidates with the lowest count to remove them as contenders. He was followed
in office in 1910 by Ricardo Jimenez Oreamuno, who won a large popular
majority in a multiparty contest. Jimenez was instrumental in winning approval
of a constitutional amendment in 1913 that provided for direct presidential
elections and an expanded franchise.

     Between 1860 and 1910 Costa Rica's population had tripled to 360,000,
immigration-principally from Spain, Germany, and Italy-accounting for about
one-quarter of the increase. As opportunities for education and for
participation in the political process increased, new names had begun to
appear on congressional rolls, and a new rural elite composed of prosperous
small farmers emerged as a force in local government. Even after the 1913
amendment, however, the percentage of eligible voters taking part in elections
was not impressive. Personalistic politics remained the rule, parties being
revived at election time as vehicles for the various candidates, all of whom
wore the label of "liberal." Although Costa Rica had become a democratic
country during the liberal ascendancy, the power of the political families,
broken under Guardia, had also reasserted itself.

The Tinoco Dictatorship

     When voters in the first direct election for president in 1914 failed to
give any of the candidates a majority, the congress picked, as a compromise,
Alfredo Gonzalez Flores, who had not appeared on the original slate of
candidates. His government, while attempting to introduce progressive social
measures, was confronted immediately by a serious economic crisis. The decline
in coffee prices after 1900 had signaled the end of the boom in the country's
export trade, which had financed education and public  works, but previous
governments had been slow to recognize the changed situation. The steady,
profitable trade with Germany, which had become Costa Rica's best customer,
continued, however, until the outbreak of World War I virtually closed the
European markets. The sudden drop in revenues weakened the economy. Wealthy
families withdrew their money from Costa Rica and deposited it in United
States banks for safekeeping. To curb capital flight, Gonzalez Flores raised
taxes on coffee exports and proposed reforms that would have placed a much
heavier tax burden on higher incomes. This undermined his backing among
wealthy and powerful families. In addition, he drastically reduced government
expenditures, including salaries of public employees. Established politicians
were alarmed by these necessary but unpopular actions, and the president's
support dwindled. He also lost favor among the population at large because of
the corruption of his government. In January 1917 Gonzalez Flores was
displaced in a military coup led by Federico Tinoco Granados, a general who
had served as secretary of war in his cabinet.

     Tinoco seized power with wide popular support, but public sentiment soon
turned against his despotic regime. Tinoco's coup had occurred shortly after
United States president Woodrow Wilson had announced a policy of
nonrecognition by which Washington refused to maintain relations with any
government that had come to office in an unconstitutional manner. In addition
to the withdrawal of diplomatic recognition, the action also affected Costa
Rica's trade relations with the United States. Although Costa Rica had
declared war on Germany and was a cobelligerent in World War I, Wilson
prevented its delegates from signing the Versailles Treaty.

     Repeated coup attempts, armed revolts, student-led demonstrations, and
the threat of United States intervention all combined to bring about Tinoco's
downfall. After the assassination of his