Transitions to captured democracy: The 1998 Costa Rican election as a critical juncture

Abstract

While Costa Rica has retained democratic stability, it has transitioned from high-turnout bipartidism to lower participation within a multi-party system. This paper analyzes the transformative 1994-1998 legislature, its antecedents, and its consequences. It, therefore, explores a political watershed where electoral participation falls dramatically under a stable party system with no authoritarian transition, labelled here as captured democracy. Methodologically, this work performed qualitative coding of media sources to trace how focusing events changed the national political context. Finally, it shows how the simultaneous weakening of the main parties Unidad and Liberación, a bipartisan pact, and several corruption scandals transformed Costa Rican democracy.