Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

’s National Constituent Assembly was formed after the 1948 civil war. Elections to the Assembly for a New Constitution were called on December 8, 1948 by the then de facto Junta provisional government presided by

José Figueres José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

. The Assembly took place between January 15 and November 7, 1949. The Assembly successfully drafted and approved the current Costa Rican Constitution. Women were not allow to vote or be elected for any of the 45 seats, as women's voting was still not legal (the 1949 Constitution subsequently gave women the right to vote and be elected). Also, due to the recent civil war, the parties of the losing side, mainly the Republicans ( Calderonistas) and the

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

were outlawed. Nevertheless, a party named National Constitutional Party led by constitutional experts and lawyers that in many cases were relatives of Republican leaders was allowed to participate and was the second more voted party, according to some historians, thanks to the Republican vote, albeit Republican leader in exile

Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia (March 8, 1900 – June 9, 1970) was a Costa Rican medical doctor and politician, who served as President from 1940 to 1944. Early life Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia was born on 8 March 1900 in San José. In his ...

called for abstention. The most voted party was

president-elect An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Unit ...

Otilio Ulate Luis Rafael de la Trinidad Otilio Ulate Blanco (August 25, 1891 – October 10, 1973) served as President of Costa Rica from 1949 to 1953. His French heritage comes from his mother, Ermida Blanco. He never married but had two daughters, Olga Ma ...

’s party National Union (PUN). The party achieved a

landslide victory A landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin. The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried", similar to the way in which a geol ...

with 74% of the vote and 34 of 45 seats. Yet, even when the party was loosely liberal as Ulate himself, most historians agree that PUN's Assemblymen didn't share much ideological or programmatic coherence other than being Ulatistas. The third largest party in the Assembly was the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

led by then de facto ruler and victorious leader of the civil war

. Unlike the other parties, the Social Democrats had a coherent ideology and political philosophy to follow, and even though it had very few seats (only 4) their members were very influential thanks to their intellectual weight, including among other future president

Luis Alberto Monge Luis Alberto Monge Álvarez (December 29, 1925 – November 29, 2016) was the President of Costa Rica from 1982 to 1986. He also served as Costa Rica's first Ambassador to Israel from 1963 until 1966. Biography Early and personal life Monge ...

and notorious academic Rodrigo Facio. The fourth party was National Fellowship, a left-wing Guanacastecan independence party led by physician Francisco Vargas. A special committee was appointed by the Assembly to draft a Constitution. Among the committee members were Facio, jurist

Fernando Baudrit Solera Fernando Baudrit Solera (October 23, 1907 – 1975) was a Costa Rican jurist. Born in Heredia, he was the son of Oscar Baudrit González and Carmen Solera Pérez. He married Adilia Gómez Mesén. He graduated from the Law School of Costa Rica. ...

and other notorious intellectuals. They made a very progressive Constitution for the time, yet the Assembly's plenary finally disregarded the draft and took the 1871 Constitution as the basis of the new one.

References

{{Reflist Constituent assemblies History of Costa Rica 1949 in Costa Rica