The Twentieth Century
The first years of the twentieth century witnessed a difficult transition towards democracy in Costa Rica. Universal male suffrage had been in effect since the last years of the nineteenth century, but class and power conflicts still dogged the country, with several caudillo (authoritarian) leaders, familiar figures in other Latin American countries, hijacking power. But in general these figures ended up in exile, and neither the army nor the Church gained much of a foothold in politics. With the election in 1940 of the Republican (PRN) candidate Rafael Calderon Guardia , a doctor educated in part in Belgium and a devout Catholic, came the social reforms and state support for which Costa Rica is still almost unique in the region. In 1941 Calderon established a new Labour Code , which reinstated the right of workers to organize and strike, and a social security system providing free schooling for all. Calderon also paved the way for the establishment of the University of Costa Rica, health insurance, income security and assistance schemes, and thus won the support of the impoverished and the lower classes and the suspicion of the governing elites. One of those less than convinced by Calderon's policies was the man who would come to be known as "Don Pepe", the coffee farmer Jose Figueres Ferrer , who denounced Calderon and his expensive reforms. Figueres soon formed an opposition party, ideologically opposed to the PRN, calling them "communists". In March, fighting around Cartago began, culminating in an attack by the Figueres rebels on San Jose. Figueres wanted above all to engineer a complete break with the country's past and especially the policies and legacies of the Calderonistas. Seeing himself as fighting both communism and corruption, he not only outlawed the PVP, the Popular Vanguard Party - formerly known as the Communist Party - but also nationalized the banks and devised a tax to hit the rich particularly hard, thus alienating the establishment. A new constitution drawn up in 1949 gave full citizenship to Afro-Caribbeans, full suffrage to women and abolished Costa Rica's army in an attempt to save resources and limit political uncertainty in the country. The 1960s and 1970s were a period of prosperity and stability in Costa Rica, during which the welfare state was developed to reach nearly all sectors of society. In 1977 the indigenous bill established the right of aboriginal peoples to their own land reserves - a progressive measure at the time, although indigenous peoples today are not convinced the system has served them well.
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