COSTA RICA

officially Republic of Coast Rica, Spanish Repblica de Costa Rica, country of Central America, covering an area of 19,730 square miles (51,100 square kilometres). Extending from northwest to southeast, Costa Rica is bounded on the north by Nicaragua, along its 630-mile (1,015-kilometre) southwestern coastline by the Pacific Ocean, on the southeast by Panama, and along its 185-mile northeastern coastline by the Caribbean Sea. At the narrowest point, the distance between the Pacific and the Caribbean is only 74 miles. The capital is San Jos. Costa Rica played a role in the federation of Central American states from 1823 to 1838 and is a member of the Organization of Central American States. Of the states that have been partners in these two enterprises, Costa Rica is the most Spanish in character and is generally regarded as having the most stable government and economy. Its well-populated heartland is devoted to harvests of coffee, its most important product, while in its outlying reaches banana cultivation is most significant. officially Republic of Costa Rica, Spanish Repblica de Costa Rica country of Central America, covering an area of 19,730 square miles (51,100 square km). The capital is San Jos. Extending from northwest to southeast, Costa Rica is bounded on the north by Nicaragua, along its 185-mile (300-kilometre) northeastern coastline by the Caribbean Sea, on the southeast by Panama, and along its 630-mile (1,015-kilometre) southwestern coastline by the Pacific Ocean. The population in 1990 was estimated to be 3,015,000. Additional reading Geography Harold D. Nelson (ed.), Costa Rica: A Country Study (1984); and Tom Barry, Costa Rica: A Country Guide (1989), provide general information on Costa Rican geography, society, economy, and history. Carolyn Hall, Costa Rica: A Geographical Interpretation in Historical Perspective (1985), offers comprehensive and up-to-date information on Costa Rican geography. John Biesanz and Mavis Biesanz, Costa Rican Life (1944, reprinted 1979); and Richard Biesanz, Karen Zubris Biesanz, and Mavis Biesanz, The Costa Ricans (1982), examine Costa Rican society, history, and institutions. Mitchell A. Seligson, Peasants of Costa Rica and the Development of Agrarian Capitalism (1980), reveals much about rural life in the country. Lowell Gudmundson, Costa Rica Before Coffee: Society and Economy on the Eve of the Export Boom (1986), is an excellent reevaluation of the early development of Costa Rica and includes considerable discussion of the myths of Costa Rican history and its historiography. Anthony Winson, Coffee and Democracy in Modern Costa Rica (1989), analyzes the relationship of small-farmer coffee production and the development of democracy. Charles D. Ameringer, Democracy in Costa Rica (1982), is the best source available in English on the formation and persistence of democracy in Costa Rica. Marilyn April Dorn, The Administrative Partitioning of Costa Rica: Politics and Planners (1989), emphasizes the lack of consistency among political (province) and administrative regionalization schemes. History Chester Lloyd Jones, Costa Rica and Civilization in the Caribbean (1935, reprinted 1967), is dated but excellent for the early national history of the country. Adela F. de Senz and Carlos Melndez Ch., Nueva historia de Costa Rica, 5th ed. (1982), provides an excellent broad survey. Mario Rodrguez, A Palmerstonian Diplomat in Central America (1964), thoroughly examines the life of Frederick Chatfield, who made Costa Rica into a virtual British protectorate. Watt Stewart, Keith and Costa Rica (1964), discusses the fascinating career of the railroad builder, financier, and fruit company executive. John Patrick Bell, Crisis in Costa Rica (1971), is the definitive investigation of the 1948 revolution. Charles D. Ameringer, Don Pepe (1978), is a political study of a major Costa Rican figure in the 20th century, Jos Figueres. Jos Luis Vega Carballo, Orden y progreso: La formacin del estado nacional en Costa Rica (1981), objectively surveys social and political change in Costa Rica. Administration and social conditions Government Costa Rica is governed by its constitution of November 1949, the 10th in its history. A president, two vice presidents, and a unicameral Legislative Assembly are elected at one time for a term of four years, the assembly by proportional representation. The president is not eligible for reelection. Magistrates of the Supreme Court are chosen by the assembly for eight-year terms, being then automatically continued in office unless removed by a two-thirds vote. An independent Supreme Electoral Tribunal oversees the election process. The nation's seven provincias are administered by governors appointed by the president. Their importance is mainly as judicial and electoral jurisdictions, most government agencies having their own administrative organization that ignores provincial boundaries. Each provincia is divided into cantones, and each cantn into distritos. Councilmen for the cantones are elected locally, but budgets for all political units are approved by the national government, which controls nearly all the funds available to local governments. Costa Rica has a stable democratic government. The fairness of national elections has been indicated by the fact that almost every four-year period since the mid-20th century has seen a change in the party winning the presidency. Two parties dominate: the National Liberation Party (Partido de Liberacin Nacional; PLN) and the Social Christian Unity Party (Partido Unidad Social Cristiana; PUSC). The former, founded by the moderate socialist Jos Figueres Ferrer in 1948, was largely responsible for establishing the health, education, and welfare reforms for which Costa Rica is noted. The PUSC, a four-party coalition formed in 1977, is more conservative and business-oriented than the PLN. In the Costa Rican system of justice, cases may be decided by a single judge or by a panel of judges; the jury system is not used, but the courts are generally noted for their fairness. Capital punishment is banned, and sentences to the penitentiary must be for a stated number of years. The highest court is the Supreme Court of Justice. Costa Rica has no army, only a nonconscripted civil guard that has police duties. There also are district police. Education The constitution provides for free and compulsory education. The government oversees school attendance, curricula, and other educational matters. About one-fourth of the nation's budget is allocated to education, and literacy rates exceed 90 percent. School attendance is relatively high, with almost 90 percent of children aged 6 to 11 enrolled in primary schools and nearly 40 percent of students aged 12 to 16 enrolled in secondary schools. The University of Costa Rica has a well-planned, functional campus in San Pedro, a suburb of San Jos; the National University has a smaller campus in Heredia; and the open university (Universidad Estatal a Distancia) offers courses by television from offices in San Jos. The Autonomous University of Central America (founded in 1976) is also located in San Jos, as are several private institutions of higher education. The Technological Institute of Costa Rica, located near Cartago, provides engineering and other technical training. Cultural life Most Costa Rican diversions are cosmopolitan rather than nationalistic in nature. The people attend films with great frequency, enjoying international cinema. They listen to an extraordinary variety of music, especially from the many radio stations in the country. Residents of the Meseta Central attend the National Theatre, where the music played and the drama performed may come from any part of the world. Costa Ricans take a strong interest in their pre-Columbian art, which includes large statues from the Pacific northwest, smaller examples of carved relief in stone from other districts, and some fine work done in the form of small objects of gold. Samples of all these may be seen in the national museum. Guayabo National Park, near Turrialba, features the country's only preserved pre-Columbian archaeological site. Genuine colonial architecture is rather scarce, the most famed example being a 17th-century mission in Oros. Cartago's older buildings, destroyed by earthquakes, have in some cases been restored; new ones like them have also been built. Among the folk arts, Costa Rica is most famous for its highly decorative oxcarts. The fine arts have seldom flourished in Costa Rican history, but they have received some impetus from government support, particularly with the creation in 1970 of the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports. Painting, sculpting, and music all showed considerable development in the latter part of the 20th century. Particular pride was taken in the growth of the National Symphony Orchestra since 1971, with the ensemble playing large halls and also taking music to the countryside. Costa Ricans have been marginally active in the field of literature. Roberto Brenes Mesn and Ricardo Fernndez Guardia were widely known as independent thinkers in the fields of education and history, respectively. Fabin Dobles has attracted international attention as a writer of novels on social-protest themes. Costa Rica has developed the largest national park system of any Latin American country, relative to its territorial extent. These parks include a bewildering range of tropical ecosystems, such as tropical rain forest, cloud forest, dry forest, and elfin forest. Other parks include active volcanoes, turtle nesting sites, and coral reefs. The national parks are a major attraction for Costa Ricans, who flock to them on weekends and major holidays such as Easter Week, Independence Day (September 15), and the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. International tourists are also attracted by these parks, some of which are noted worldwide for their vegetation and wildlife. Numerous publishing houses operate in the country, issuing both fiction and nonfiction on a wide range of topics. The government-operated Editorial Costa Rica and the Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana are among the most prolific of the publishing houses. Both the number and variety of publications available in Costa Rican bookstores surpasses those of any other Central American country and some South American countries as well. La Nacin, an independent but conservative daily, is the most widely read of Costa Rica's newspapers. It is balanced by La Rpublica and La Prensa Libre, independents that lean more toward reform ideas. There are several television stations, one of which is government-owned. Franklin D. Parker Gary S. Elbow