Figuerism

Figueres is remembered for, among other things, having respected the "Social Guarantees" (a series of social reforms beneficial to the popular classes, enacted in the Calderón administration and kept by Figueres after winning the war), abolished the army, nationalized the four largest banks, approved women's suffrage, ended racial segregation (until 1949, black people had no right to vote or leave certain areas) and created the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity.

The centenary of his birth, on September 25, 2006, was celebrated by both the government, chaired by Óscar Arias of the National Liberation Party, and in the Legislative Assembly, by the (then) main opposition force, the Citizens' Action Party.

Ideology

José Figueres Ferrer proclaimed himself an adherent of utopian socialism and developed a particularly Creole and native form of Costa Rican socialism which is difficult to define in international standards. He was a member of the Democratic Action group, which was part of the Democratic Party, which opposed the Christian socialist government of Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia, who was allied to the Costa Rican Communist Party. He led the revolution against Calderón after the elections in 1948 were canceled by the Constitutional Congress on the basis of electoral irregularities, when Calderón was defeated by the opposition candidate (and future ally of Calderón) Otilio Ulate. Figueres then commanded the National Liberation Army, who emerged victorious in the civil war.

In 1953, the Center for the Study of National Problems and Democratic Action merged, becoming the National Liberation Party. Figueres was its first candidate and its first democratically elected president. The Center drew upon social democratic thought of the time, particularly that of Haya de la Torre. Figuerismo is not synonymous with liberationism, the ideology that revolves around the National Liberation Party and which has a varied archipelago of internal factions and beliefs.