Calderonism () 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 the Unity Coalition, National Unification Party and the current Social Christian Unity Party and its split the Social Christian Republican Party. It is, 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 identifies 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.
Calderonist policies "integrated Marxist, social Christian and state bureaucratic tendencies", and have been described as socialist, social democratic, and social Catholic. Calderón formed an alliance between the Catholic Church and the communist party to carry out socialist reforms — to this end, Calderonism is considered a precursor to liberation theology. Calderonism is described as very similar to the "spiritual socialism" of Guatemalan President Juan José Arévalo, as both movements pursued expansive worker rights, public health and social security programs. Calderón's reforms greatly empowered the Costa Rican trade unions and labor force, providing them with constitutional guarantees and strictly enforced judicial protection; communist trade unions and Catholic labor confederations rapidly grew and built a union movement. Calderonism also directly challenged the powerful domestic and foreign business interests of Costa Rica, sparking business-based opposition and subversion; Calderonism is credited with reorienting the state as an instrument of the working class.
History
Calderonism was born with the political leadership of Dr. Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia. His administration (1940–1944) has been traditionally controversial. During his tenure the University of Costa Rica was created, the border problem with Panama was solved through the Echandi-Fernández treaty and in alliance with the Catholic Church and the Costa Rican Communist Party, the Labor Code and the Social Guarantees were promulgated. At the same time, the opposition accused Calderón of authoritarianism, corruption and persecution of political opponents and ethnic minorities (particularly Germans, Italians and Japanese after the Pearl Harbor attacks with Costa Rica joining World War II as part of the Allies).
Calderón promoted his reforms as "based on a point of view entirely Christian". He established a nationwide universal healthcare system, social security payments for all retired workers, a housing program for the workers, and other measures that raised the living standards of the country's working class. Calderón's Labor Code provided a wide variety of privileges for the workers and trade unions, including enforced minimum quality of working conditions, the right to association, collective bargaining, the right to strike, and a judicial mechanism that would force the employers to consider and implement the demands of trade unions, was the court to rule in their favor. Calderón's reforms spurred a rapid growth of trade unions in Costa Rica, and trade unions of both Catholic and communist orientation swelled in numbers. At the same time, Calderón's reforms were extremely unpopular amongst the Costa Rican corporations. Calderonism began to be labelled as calderocomunismo, by both Calderón's supporters and opponents.
Calderonism was met with extensive opposition from employers, which led to the Costa Rican oligarchy plotting a coup against Calderón. The Costa Rican communists were also approached regarding critical support for the possible overthrow of Calderón. However, the Communist Party of Costa Rica chose to align with Calderón instead, citing his "impressive social reforms" and openness towards socialism. Calderonism was strongly supported by the poor and the workers, although the opposition composed of middle-class and business sectors became increasingly organized and powerful.
Calderón ruled directly from 1940 to 1944, and his chosen candidate, Teodoro Picado Michalski won the 1944 Costa Rican general election as part of a Republican-Communist coalition named the Victory Bloc and in the middle of increasing political tensions.See
In the 1948 election Calderón was again a candidate for the presidency. The National Electoral Court provisionally declared the opposition candidate, Otilio Ulate Blanco, elected, but Calderón Guardia filed a claim of fraud and presented to Congress a nullity of the presidential elections, although not of the legislative ones, in which his supporters had obtained a majority. On March 1, 1948, Congress—where the alliance of Calderonists and communists had a majority—annulled the presidential elections. While many argue that Calderón robbed the opposition of its rightful victory, there is a strong indication that Guardia was actually the victor in the 1948 election. This caused a civil war, in which government forces were defeated militarily by those of rebel caudillo José Figueres Ferrer. Calderón went into exile in Nicaragua, and in December 1948 he invaded Costa Rica with support from the government of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García, but the expedition, known as the counterrevolution, failed.John Patrick Bell "Crisis in Costa Rica: The 1948 Revolution". Institute of Latin American Studies - University of Texas Publishing, Copyright 1971 p. 27 Calderón moved with his family to Mexico, and in 1955 he undertook a second invasion of Costa Rica, with the support of Somoza García, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and Marcos Pérez Jiménez, but his forces were defeated again. The rebel forces seized the border town of Villa Quesada on 12 January.
With the Republicans and Communists outlawed the Constituent Assembly of Costa Rica was convened in 1949, enabling the current Costa Rican Constitution. Figueres (who ruled de facto for 18 months before giving power to Ulate in 1949) was subsequently a formal candidate by the newly formed National Liberation Party, winning the 1953 Costa Rican general election. Calderón called for the population to abstain. In 1958, the presidential candidate for the National Union Party, Mario Echandi, promised to bring back Calderón and family from exile and sign a general amnesty if elected and received the vote in bloc of the Calderonistas.
Calderón was candidate to Congress in exile and won a seat as deputy, returning in 1958 thanks the Echandi's amnesty. He was a presidential candidate again in 1962, and despite his defeat, until his death he continued to be a very influential political figure. He was Ambassador of Costa Rica to Mexico from 1966 to 1969 and was declared Benemerito de la Patria (benefactor of the homeland, the greatest honor conferred to nationals in Costa Rica) by the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, on April 17, 1974, by agreement No. 1410.
In the 1978 election, Rodrigo Carazo Odio was elected president with the support of Calderonistas under the banner of a coalition of parties called the Unity Coalition, formed by the Calderonist Republican Party, the Christian Democratic Party, the Democratic Renewal Party and the Popular Union Party. However, by 1981 when the struggles for the election of the candidate for the 1982 elections begin, problems arise between the candidate Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier of the Calderonista Republican Party and Rodolfo Méndez Mata, mostly represented by the Democratic Renewal Party. Shortly after, and also with the support of the Democratic Renewal Party, Rodrigo Madrigal Nieto tried to register his candidacy. In these circumstances of struggle of tendencies the Calderonista Republican, Popular Union and Christian Democratic parties decided to go alone to the election and changed the flag of the coalition for another with the colors red and blue (the modern colors of PUSC). However, at the end of August 1981, Democratic Renewal returned to the Coalition and took part in it. The conditions of the campaign were unfavorable as the party had to bear the unpopularity of Carazo's government. Knowing that he had no chance of winning, Calderón Fournier's campaign focused on saving the coalition and the future party. The result obtained was 34% of votes but the bloc remained as the second most voted force, considered a success given the circumstances.
In April 1983, the Political Directory of the coalition adopted a calendar, and it was immediately agreed that the Popular Union Party would serve as the receiver of the other three, changing its name to that of Social Christian Unity Party. The National Assemblies of each party participating in said coalition had to agree, in advance, to its dissolution to immediately give way to the merger. Legally this implied that as long as the new party existed, none of the merged parties could re-register. On December 17, 1983, at the last session of the National Assemblies of the parties that formed the Unity Coalition, they agreed to dissolve and merge into one. In 1984, they begin the steps for the election of the candidate for the 1986 elections. Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier and Óscar Aguilar Bulgarelli registered as pre-candidates; however, at the beginning of the campaign, Bulgarelli dropped from the race. With only one pre-candidate left, the convention was suspended and on December 2, 1984, Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier was selected as the presidential candidate.
On February 2, 1986, the electoral result favored the rival National Liberation Party's nominee, Oscar Arias Sánchez by a difference of 6.5%; however, PUSC managed to elect 25 deputies while its presidential candidate had received 45.8% of the valid votes, making clear the existence of a two-party system.
In 1987, work began for a new participation in the elections. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez began his political career as a candidate, as did Germán Serrano Pinto. Because of defeats suffered in the 1982 and 1986 elections, Calderón Fournier retired from an eventual candidacy, and supported Rodriguez. However, the party base expected a new candidacy from Calderón. Polls began to show strong support for Calderón. In December 1987, Serrano decided to withdraw his candidacy and seek an agreement with Rodríguez. Meanwhile, there had been clashes between Rodriguez and Calderón for the list of candidates for deputies, which caused many leaders to begin to support Calderón's candidacy. Shortly after a movement was generated, which started mainly from the PUSC deputies, to formally request Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier to be a candidate for the presidency again. After two consecutive periods of the PLN in power, and the demonstration of strength of the PUSC in the 1986 elections, the prospects for winning the elections in 1990 were very favorable. Under these circumstances, and under the support of party deputies, Rafael Ángel Calderón announced his candidacy. Rodriguez decided to continue in the fight. As expected. Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier won the candidacy for 76% of the votes cast.