Conservative Party
Conservative Party
One of Ecuador's two historic political parties, the Partido Conservador emerged informally in the 1860s during the dictatorship of Gabriel García Moreno and was officially founded in 1883. Consistent with the tenets of García Moreno, the party staked out a position as the unyielding champion of Catholic Church interests, as well as of public education and many other secular matters. Advocates of a strong central government, the Conservatives remained influential during the long period of Liberal hegemony (1895–1944).
Traditionally the vehicle for the political expression of conservative interests in general and of highland landowners' interests in particular, the party enjoyed renewed influence during the 1956–1960 presidency of Camilo Ponce Enríquez. It then began to decline, and was notably weakened by introduction of universal suffrage in 1978. Even before then, however, its progressive wing had split off in 1964 to form Democracia Popular (Popular Democracy—DP). In 1978 and 1984 the Conservatives joined rightist coalitions while running their own congressional slate. They placed ten members in Congress in 1978 but only two in 1984. By the 1990s they had lost these seats, the party was moribund, and former followers had gone over to the Social Christians. Perhaps the party's last political effort was a desperate stab at staying relevant by supporting the socialist candidate, León Roldos, in the 2002 elections.
See alsoEcuador: Since 1830; García Moreno, Gabriel; Ponce Enríquez, Camilo.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
George I. Blanksten, Ecuador: Constitutions and Caudillos (1951).
John D. Martz, Ecuador: Conflicting Political Culture and the Quest for Progress (1972).
Additional Bibliography
Demélas, Marie-Danielle. La invención política: Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú en el siglo XIX. Lima, Peru: IFEA, Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, 2003.
Freidenberg, Flavia, and Manuel Alcántara Sáez. Los dueños del poder: Los partidos políticos en Ecuador (1978–2000). Quito, Ecuador: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, 2001.
Mejía Acosta, Andrés. Gobernabilidad democrática: Sistema electoral, partidos políticos y pugna de poderes en Ecuador (1978–1998). Quito, Ecuador: Fundación Konrad Adenauer, 2002.
John D. Martz