The Republican Socialist Unity Party (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

: ''Partido de la Unión Republicana Socialista'', PURS) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

founded on 10 November 1946 in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

as the fusion of the

Republican Socialist Party The Republican Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste républicain, abbreviated PSR) was a political party in Belgium. The party was founded on August 15, 1887, by Alfred Defuissaux, a miners' leader from Borinage. Defuissaux had been expelled f ...

, the

Genuine Republican Party The Genuine Republican Party ( es, Partido Republicano Genuino, PRG) was founded in Bolivia in 1921 by José María Escalier and Daniel Domingo Salamanca Urey following a split in the Republican Party. Genuine Republican Party was formed by a ...

, the United Socialist Party, and the Independent Socialist Party. Despite its socialist-sounding name, the PURS was actually a conservative party. It represented a last-ditch effort of Bolivia's traditional political establishment to oppose the forces of mass-based populism and of socialism represented by the

Revolutionary Nationalist Movement The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement ( es, Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario , MNR) is a centre-right conservative political party in Bolivia and was the leading force behind the Bolivian National Revolution from 1952 to 1964. It influen ...

(MNR). Led by Enrique Hertzog Garaizabal, Francisco Lazcano Soruca, Waldo Belmonte Pool, and Mamerto Urriolagoitía Harriague, the Republican Socialist Unity Party attempted particularly to revive the position and popularity of the old Saavedristas wing of the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

. PURS favored

anticommunism Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

, ample room for

free enterprise In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...

, and

antifascism Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

, primarily interpreted as opposition to the MNR. The Republican Socialist Unity Party participated in the 1947 and 1951 general elections. Hertzog was elected President of the Republic in 1947, with Urriolagoitía as his vice-president; and the latter succeeded to the presidency when Hertzog resigned because of ill health. In the 1951 elections, Gabriel Gosalvez ran for the PURS but received far fewer votes than the winner,

Víctor Paz Estenssoro Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro (2 October 1907 – 7 June 2001) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 45th president of Bolivia for three nonconsecutive and four total terms from 1952 to 1956, 1960 to 1964 and 1985 to 1989. He ran for pre ...

. PURS supported the military takeover which followed the elections, in order to prevent Paz from becoming president on the basis of his popular plurality. The PURS would never come close to taking power again. It nominally continued to exist through the early 1970s, but largely became inactive after 1952. For the 1966 elections, the PURS was a component of the

Democratic Institutionalist Alliance The Democratic Institutionalist Alliance (Spanish: ''Alianza Institucionalista Democrática'', AID) was an electoral political alliance of the Liberal Party (PL) and the Republican Socialist Unity Party The Republican Socialist Unity Party ( Spanis ...

, with Hertzog as the coalition's presidential candidate. He polled 11,400 votes (01.13%) and came sixth. In 1978 PURS allied with the

Nationalist Union of the People The Nationalist Union of the People (Spanish: ''Unión Nacionalista del Pueblo'', UNP) was a right-wing, pro-military electoral political alliance in Bolivia. The UNP was formed in January 1978 by: * Bolivian Socialist Falange, FSB (right-wing pro ...

and its candidate

Juan Pereda Juan Pereda Asbún (17 June 1931 – 25 November 2012) was a Bolivians, Bolivian military general who served as the ''de facto'' 52nd president of Bolivia in 1978. Although he ruled for only four months, his ascent to the presidency ...

.Elections in the Americas : a data handbook / ed. by Dieter Nohlen, Vol. 2. xford .a. Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. P.139.

Notes

Defunct political parties in Bolivia Political parties established in 1946 Anti-communist parties 1946 establishments in Bolivia {{Bolivia-party-stub