Conservative Party

Colombia's Conservative Party was founded in 1849, making it one of the oldest functioning political parties in Latin America. For more than 150 years it has struggled for power in Colombia against its traditional adversary, the Liberal Party. During much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was characterized by its support for a strong central government, economic protectionism, and close ties with the Catholic Church. The Conservative Party in the early twenty-first century is a mainstream center-right party with multiclass support, but remains characterized in many regions by patron-client relations between party leaders and followers. Since the return of fully competitive elections in 1974, it has also clearly been the minority party. Nonetheless, it has won the presidency twice under Belisario Betancur Cuartas (1982–1986) and Andres Pastrana Arango (1998–2002). In the 2002 and 2006 elections, it chose not to run a presidential candidate, but rather to support Alvaro Uribe Vélez, a Liberal Party dissident running as an independent (and the winner both times), because of his strong conservative positions.

See alsoBetancur Cuartas, Belisario .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dugas, John C. "The Conservative Party and the Crisis of Political Legitimacy in Colombia." In Conservative Parties, the Right, and Democracy in Latin America, edited by Kevin J. Middlebrook. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Pachón, Mónica. "Partido Conservador y sus dinámicas políticas." In Degradación o cambio: Evolución del sistema politico colombiano, edited by Francisco Gutiérrez Sanín. Bogotá: Grupo Editorial Norma, 2002.

                                       John C. Dugas