La exclusión electoral del Partido Comunista de Costa Rica en 1931 : una interpretación institucional

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to propose an institutional explanation of the political interests behind the exclusion of communists from the electoral arena. The basic approach is that the refusal to register your organization, although it may have been influenced by ideological considerations, was primarily due to the unprecedented conditions brought about by the 1925-1927 reform, whose main innovation was passing the secret ballot. The abandonment of public suffrage, by reinforcing the position of the electorate vis-à-vis the parties, increased the risks and costs of the campaigns and, especially - at a time when no polls were carried out on the preferences of voters - the uncertainty.