In 1951 Figueres and his band of middle-class revolutionaries formed their own political party, the Partido de Liberación Nacional, PLN, in order to promote their developmental reforms through electoral politics.
In the 1952 elections, ironically, it was Figueres who was labeled a ‘communist’ by the opposition Ulate supporters. Figueres however, won the election legitimately, without military intervention or fraudulent pacts! The first ‘democratically’ elected president was then able to consolidate his campaign of ‘reconstructed’, state-centred liberalism and truly initiate his intended economic and industrial transformation of Costa Rica through government-led development programs.
A somewhat paradoxical consequence of Figures’ rule was the acceptance of Calderon’s heavily contested reforms by even the most conservative elements of the political elite. Despite Calderón’s exile his ‘social guarantees’ were embraced by the Liberación government and by the mid-1950s had become assimilated into the updated ‘national ideology’ of the Second Republic, regarded as an essential element of Costa Rica’s liberal egalitarian tradition. Calderón himself was permitted to return to the country in 1962 and ran unsuccessfully for president. He died in Costa Rica in 1970.
A somewhat paradoxical consequence of Figures’ rule was the acceptance of Calderon’s heavily contested reforms by even the most conservative elements of the political elite. Despite Calderón’s exile his ‘social guarantees’ were embraced by the Liberación government and by the mid-1950s had become assimilated into the updated ‘national ideology’ of the Second Republic, regarded as an essential element of Costa Rica’s liberal egalitarian tradition. Calderón himself was permitted to return to the country in 1962 and ran unsuccessfully for president. He died in Costa Rica in 1970.
