History of the Costa Rican legislature

During the Spanish monarchy time prior to the Cortes of Cádiz, in which the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated, the power to create laws resided in the King. In 1812 this Constitution is enacted by the Cortes Generales and it establishes that it is up to them to propose and decree laws in conjunction with the Monarch, as well as to interpret and repeal them if necessary. It applied to Costa Rica between its decree on March 19, 1812, and the return to the throne of Ferdinand VII of Spain in mid-1814. It was again enforced from the first months of 1820 to December 1, 1821. Some parts of its text was incorporated in the first constitutions of independent Costa Rica. One deputy was elected for every 70,000 inhabitants in a Province. Costa Rica had as its representative before the Cortes the presbyter Florencio del Castillo. The Political Constitution of 1844 is issued on April 9, 1844, and ends with the coup d'état of June 7, 1846. This constitution establishes a bicameral system with reciprocal initiative and sanction, a chamber composed of elected representatives directly and a Senate of not less than 5 members, also elected by suffrage. The Political Constitution of 1871 was issued and sanctioned on December 7, 1871. It was without effect on September 11, 1877 with the coup d'état of Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez. It became effective again on April 26, 1882. It ceased to rule during the period of the Constitution of 1917 and came into force once again until May 8, 1948. It established the power to legislate in the Constitutional Congress, composed of 43 tenure deputies and 18 alternates, proportionally elected by provinces at the rate of one tenure for every 15,000 inhabitants with a residual system. After the coup d'état of Federico Tinoco Granados against President Alfredo González Flores, a new constituent assembly was convened and the Political Constitution of 1917 was promulgated, which governed from June 8, 1917, to September 3, 1919, when the government fell for the revolution led by Julio Acosta García. This constitution, which lasted for two years, was drafted by the presidents Bernardo Soto Alfaro, Rafael Iglesias Castro, Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra, Cleto González Víquez and Carlos Durán Cartín. José Joaquín Rodríguez Zeledón excused himself using health reasons and Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno alleged that he was on his farm. It established a bicameral legislative branch, based on a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate, both of popular election. Each province elected one deputy for every 20,000 inhabitants and three tenure senators and one alternate. With the Costa Rican Civil War in 1948 that overthrew the government of Teodoro Picado Michalski, the constitutional order was broken yet again and the Founding Junta of the Second Republic, headed by José Figueres Ferrer, took over. A constituent assembly is convened and the Political Constitution of 1949 is enacted, in place up to this date. In this constitution the unicameral system of 1871 is maintained and the number of deputies is fixed at 45, with the provision that when the population exceeds 1,350,000 inhabitants, a new deputy would be elected for every 30,000 or rest. It was also arranged that every three deputies would choose an alternate. Subsequently, by means of Law N ° 2741 of May 12, 1961, the constitutional text was amended to leave the number of deputies fixed at 57 and eliminates the alternates. Throughout the history of Costa Rica, the first interim governors (1821-1825) had legislative faculties and they had or were attributed by other provisional or de facto governments: • Braulio Carrillo Colina (1838-1842). • Francisco Morazán (1842). • José María Alfaro Zamora (1842-1844 and 1846–1847). • Juan Rafael Mora Porras (1852) (While ordered to close the Congress). • José María Montealegre Fernández (1859-1860). • Jesús Jiménez Zamora (1863) (While ordered to close the Congress. and 1868–1869). • Bruno Carranza Ramírez (1870). • Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez (1870-1872). • Vicente Herrera Zeledón (1876-1871). • Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez (1877-1882). • José Joaquín Rodríguez Zeledón (1892-1894). • Federico Tinoco Granados (1917). • Francisco Aguilar Barquero (1919-1920). ==Bicamerality==

was a member of Senate. Senate of Costa Rica The Senate of Costa Rica was the upper chamber of the Costa Rican Legislative branch as prescribed in the constitutions of 1844, 1859, 1869 and 1917. During all these different constitutions, the Senate had different characteristics and conformations. The Constitution of 1844 established a House of Senators of five senators and their alternates who was renewed by thirds on an annual basis with the possibility of re-election. In the 1859 senators were ten per province that could be re-elected indefinitely and that was renewed every two years. Only the Constitution of 1917 posed the right to naturalized Costa Ricans to be senators, the others required to be Costa Rican by birth. In all, it was a requirement to be over 44 years old, except in 1844, the requirement was to be older than 35. All demanded belonging to the secular state (not being a Catholic priest). This would be abolished in the Constitution of 1847. The Constitution of 1859 again reintroduces the bicameral congress with a House of Representatives and another of Senators whose powers are described in Article 90. The Constitution of 1869 maintains the figure of the House of Representatives separated from the Senate in its Article 88. It would be abolished in the Constitution of 1871 in which the Parliament returns to be unicameral. The Chamber of Deputies of Costa Rica was the lower chamber of the Legislative branch prescribed by the Constitution of 1917. The existence of the same lasted only two years since that constituent body was abolished after the overthrow of Federico Tinoco in 1919 and the Constitution was re-established back to 1871 that established a unicameral Congress. The House was made up of deputies of popular election elected by each province at the rate of a tenure deputy for every fifteen thousand inhabitants or by fraction greater than seven thousand five hundred, plus one deputy for each three tenure and one senator for every three deputies. The requirements to be a deputy included being a Costa Rican by birth or by naturalization with more than ten years of being nationalized, being over 25 years old, being able to read and write and owning properties with a value of not less than three thousand colónes or an annual income of not less than one thousand. In addition, the President or Vice-Presidents, ministers, magistrates or local authorities could not be deputies. The term lasted six years with indefinite re-election and half of the Chamber had to be renewed each three years (which didn't occurred as the existence of the Chamber did not last that long). The Senate had precedence over the Chamber of Deputies and in fact the Constitution established that in case someone was elected deputy and senator should choose to be a senator and while a senator could be a deputy, a deputy could not be a senator. ==Constitutional Congress==

==Current parliamentary reform debate==

Number of seats The Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica is a unicameral body of 57 deputies whose number is constitutionally fixed and who are elected in closed lists postulated by the political parties by reason of a proportional system. Different experts have recommended the increase in the number of deputies as an urgent need to improve representativeness, but this proposal is highly unpopular among the population and generates reactions of rejection. A report of the United Nations Development Program and the Center of Investigation and Political Studies of the University of Costa Rica recommended to increase the number of legislators to 82. the Northwestern University of Chicago made recommendations for more than 100 countries and recommended that the Costa Rican parliament should have 115 deputies according to its population (in 1999), the Board of Notables for the Reform of the State summoned by President Laura Chinchilla during her tenure recommended to increase the seats to between 75 and 85. The proposal of the book Aplicación del modelo alemán a la elección de diputados en Costa Rica by lawyer Diego González suggests increasing the number to 143, making use, as the title indicates, of an electoral system similar to the German model. This was suggested again by the Commission of Notables for the Reform of the State convened by Laura Chinchilla, and to which belonged the minister of the presidency Rodolfo Piza. A bill present in the legislative current and studied in committee would seek to increase the number of deputies and make the parliament name and remove ministers, able to call early elections if the president receives a vote of no confidence and that the president can dissolve Parliament and hold elections. However is not currently under discussion. The switch to this system has also been endorsed by the deputy and former president of the Social Christian Unity Party Pedro Muñoz, the conservative deputy Mario Redondo, and the historic leader of the Citizens' Action Party Ottón Solís. It was also part of the proposals analyzed in the Legislative Assembly in the Commission of Reforms to the Political System together with other changes such as the direct vote for deputies, their increase in number and a comprehensive reform of the legislative by-law. The ex-deputy, former minister and former presidential candidate Rolando Araya Monge, who is part of the Second Commission of Notables for State Reform, this time convened by President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, announced that he would propose both the passage to parliamentarism and going back to bicamerality. ==Evolution==