Political Parties
Costa Rica's current leading political parties are:
- National Liberation Party (Costa Rica) (Partido Liberación Nacional—PLN). Founded in 1951 at the end of the civil war. social democratic.
- Citizen's Action Party (Partido Acción Ciudadana -- PAC). Founded 2000 by former PLN member; strong showings in 2002 and 2006 elections (30% of Assembly in 2006). Reformist, largely but not exclusively left and center left.
- Libertarian Movement Party (Partido Movimiento Libertario -- PML). Founded 1994; won 6 Congressional seats (10% of the Assembly) in 2002 and again in 2006. Libertarian.
- Social Christian Unity Party (Partido Unidad Social Cristiana—PUSC). Currently less popular than its past, after revelations of corruption, 3 seats in the Assembly. Christian democratic.
Minor parties with 1 seat in the Assembly:
- Access without Exclusion (Partido Accessibilidad Sin Exclusión—PASE.) Fights for disabled people.
- Broad Front (Partido Frente Amplio -- FA). Left.
- National Union Party (Partido Unión Nacional -- PUN). Center right.
- National Rescue Party (Partido Rescate Nacional).
Minor parties without congressional representation as of 2009:
- Costa Rican Renovation Party (Partido Renovación Costariccense).
- Union for Change Party (Partido Unión para el Cambio).
- National Restoration Party (Partido Restauración Nacional—PRN). Christian.
- Homeland First Party (Partido Patria Primero).
Several smaller new parties that participated for the first time in the 2006 elections include Partido Unión Patriótica and Partido Alianza Democrática Nacionalista.
Read more about this topic: Politics Of Costa Rica
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or parties:
“In bourgeois society, the French and the industrial revolution transformed the authorization of political space. The political revolution put an end to the formalized hierarchy of the ancien regimé.... Concurrently, the industrial revolution subverted the social hierarchy upon which the old political space was based. It transformed the experience of society from one of vertical hierarchy to one of horizontal class stratification.”
—Donald M. Lowe, U.S. historian, educator. History of Bourgeois Perception, ch. 4, University of Chicago Press (1982)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (15791688)