List of political parties in Costa Rica

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This article lists political parties in Costa Rica. Costa Rica used to have a two-party system, which meant that there were two dominant political parties, the Social Christian Unity Party and the National Liberation Party, with extreme difficulty for anybody to achieve electoral success under the banner of any other party. After the 2002 elections and the strong showing of the brand-new Citizens' Action Party, it was considered very likely that the old two-party system was on the verge of giving way to a multi-party system. Several other parties have gained prominence since then, and the 2006 elections made it clear that Costa Rica is now a multi-party system.

Starting in the 2000s, disagreement about many of the neo-liberal policies promoted by the dominant PLN caused the traditional party system of alliances among a few parties to fracture.^[1] Although still a stable country, the shift toward many political parties and away from PUSC and PLN is a recent development.^[2] Various elected positions within the country, such as mayors and city council members, are held by many different national and local political parties.

Party Lists[]

Parliamentary fractions of the Legislative Assembly, 2018-2022[]

Political Parties in Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, 2018-2022
Party			Abbr.	Founded	Deputies	Ideology	Position
		National Liberation Party Partido Liberación Nacional	PLN	1951	17 / 57	Social democracy, Third Way, social liberalism	Center (with some centre-left and centre-right factions)
		Citizens' Action Party Partido Acción Ciudadana	PAC	2002	9 / 57	Progressivism, social democracy, Christian democracy	Centre-left to left-wing (with some centre-right factions)
		Social Christian Unity Party Partido Unidad Social Cristiana	PUSC	1983	8 / 57	Conservatism, Christian democracy, classical liberalism	Centre-right
		National Restoration Party Partido Restauración Nacional	PRN	2005	7 / 57	Christian politics, social conservatism	Right-wing to far-right
		National Integration Party Partido Integración Nacional	PIN	1998	2 / 57	Social conservatism, economic nationalism	Right-wing
		Social Christian Republican Party Partido Republicano Social Cristiano	PRSC	2014	1 / 57	Conservatism, Christian democracy, classical liberalism	Centre-right
		Broad Front Frente Amplio	FA	2004	1 / 57	Green politics, progressivism, humanism, democratic socialism	Left-wing

Independent deputies[]

Deputies that decided to leave the party with which they were elected to office, and then in personal capacity gave their adhesion to extra-parliamentary parties.

Political Parties in Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, 2018-2022
Party			Abbr.	Deputies	Ideology	Position	Historic Notes
		New Republic Party Bloc Bloque del Partido Nueva República	PRN	6 / 57	Christian politics, social conservatism	Right-wing to far-right	Founded in 2019, its deputies were all elected on the PRN ticket.
		New Generation Party Partido Nueva Generación	PNG	2 / 57	Economic liberalism, social conservatism, anti-immigration	Centre-right to right-wing	Founded in 2012. Received adhesion of two deputies.

Extra-parliamentary parties[]

Nationally Unrepresented Political Parties
Party Name (English)			Party Name (Spanish)	Ideology	Position	Historic Notes
		Accessibility without Exclusion	Partido Accesibilidad sin Exclusión (PASE)	Single issue, rights for people with disabilities, Social conservatism	Right-wing	Founded 2001.
		Christian Democratic Alliance	Alianza Demócrata Cristiana (ADC)	Conservativism, Christian democracy, provincial (Cartago)	Right-wing	Founded in 2012.
		Costa Rican Renewal Party	Partido Renovación Costarricense (PRC)	Christian politics, Social conservatism	Right-wing	Founded in 1995.
		Libertarian Movement	Partido Movimiento Libertario (PML)	Classical liberalism, Liberal conservatism, Libertarianism (originally)	Right-wing	Founded 1994.
		Patriotic Alliance	Alianza Patriótica (AP)	Social democracy	Center-left	Founded in 1982. Held one seat in 1982. Joined Coalition Change 2000. Active as of 2014.
		Liberal Progressive Party	Partido Liberal Progresista (PLP)	Liberalism, Economic liberalism, Social liberalism	Center to Centre-right	Founded in 2016.

Local[]

Local parties
Party Name (English)			Party Name (Spanish)	Canton	Historic Notes
		Party of the Sun	Partido del Sol	Santa Ana	Founded in 1997. Originally single issue to oppose trash dump construction. Controlled Santa Ana City Council for four consecutive terms.
		21st Century Curridabat	Curridabat Siglo 21	Curridabat	Founded in 1997, controlled Curridabat Mayoralty and City Council for four consecutive terms
		Escazu's Progressive Yoke	Yunta Progresista Escazuseña	Escazu	Founded in 1996, controlled Escazu Mayoralty and City Council for three consecutive terms.
		Cartago Green Party	Partido Verde de Cartago	Cartago	Founded in 2004.

Defunct Political Parties[]

Defunct Political Parties
Party Name (English)			Party Name (Spanish)	Ideology	Historic Notes
		National Union Party	Partido Unión Nacional (PUN)	Conservatism, Center-right	Founded in 1901. Has existed in various forms and coalition parties until 2010. Won the presidency four times (1902, 1928, 1948, 1958, 1966). 1948 election was unrecognized. Defunct as of 2010.
		National Rescue Party	Partido Rescate Nacional (PRN)	Center-left, Moderate socialist	Founded in 1996. Held one legislative seat in 2006. Defunct as of 2010.
		Democratic Force	Fuerza Democrática	Left wing	Founded in 1994. Held three seats from 1998-2002. Defunct as of 2006.
		Popular Vanguard Party	Partido Vanguardia Popular (PVP)	Communist, far-left	Founded in 1931. Existed as The Workers' and Farmers' Party and Communist Party of Costa Rica. Defunct as of 1984.
		National Unification Party	Partido Unificación Nacional	Center-right, liberal-conservative	Founded in 1966 as joint of National Republican and National Union. Defunct as of 1978.
		National Republican Party	Partido Republicano Nacional	Centrist, personal	Founded in 1901. Often called "Calderonistas." Joined Unity Coalition in 1978, which later became PUSC. Defunct as of 1978.
		Agrarian Labour Action Party	Partido Acción Laborista Agrícola (PALA)	Agrarian, Provincial Alajuela	Founded in 1990. Held one seat in 1998. Defunct as of 2007.

See also[]

• Politics of Costa Rica
• Elections in Costa Rica
• List of Costa Rican politicians

References[]