Costa Ricas konsolidering : När konsoliderades Costa Ricas demokrati utifrån ett maximalistiskt perspektiv

This thesis aims to examine when democratic consolidation took place in Costa Rica from a maximalistic perspective. The hypothesis is that it’s likely that the democracy was not consolidated as early as 1953 which would be the case if applying a minimalistic perspective. Linz and Stepan’s theory about democratic consolidation has been chosen as the theoretical framework of the thesis and the research has been conducted by using a qualitative text analysis. The thesis comes to the conclusion that Costa Rica’s democracy completed its consolidation 1978 when the previously banned communist party Partido Vanguardia Popular was allowed to compete for votes again in the 1978’s presidential and parliamentary elections. From that point no party was excluded from taking part in free and fair elections