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Ecuador Other Parties
The two-party structure began to decline in the early twentieth
century as leftist parties emerged and the country experienced a
quarter-century of political instability. Ecuador had at least four
communist and socialist parties. The oldest was the Ecuadorian
Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Ecuatoriano--PSE), founded in
1925 as a section of the Communist International. Consisting of a
small group of intellectuals, the PSE was influential only through
coalitions either with groups on the left, including the
Communists, or more often, with the PLR. The PSE was one of the few
parties that was neither regionally based nor personalist in
character. Although it depended on wealthy groups and individuals
for support, the PSE played a major role in formulating social
welfare legislation.
The PSE gave birth to both the Moscow-oriented Ecuadorian
Communist Party (Partido Comunista Ecuatoriano--PCE), which broke
away in 1928, and the pro-Cuban Revolutionary Socialist Party of
Ecuador (Partido Socialista Revolucionario del Ecuador--PSRE),
which broke away in 1962. The PCE, a legal party, generally has
concentrated on enhancing its position within organized labor,
student organizations, and the educational bureaucracy; it had
little voter appeal. By the 1970s, the PSRE had become the
strongest advocate of revolution in the country. The PSRE and PCE,
along with Christian leftists and Maoists, joined in 1977 to form
a Moscow-line leftist front called the Broad Left Front (Frente
Amplio de la Izquierda--FADI). Another PCE splinter group, the proChinese Communist Party of Ecuador--Marxist-Leninist (Partido
Comunista del Ecuador--Marxista-Leninista--PCE-ML) formed in 1972.
Several noncommunist and Christian Democratic parties also
emerged in the twentieth century. The Ecuadorian Nationalist
Revolutionary Action (Acción Revolucionaria Nacionalista
Ecuatoriana--ARNE), founded in 1942, was a highly nationalistic,
anticommunist, quasi-fascist group with its strongest appeal among
youths in the Sierra. The center-right Social Christian Party
(Partido Social Cristiano--PSC) was established in 1951 and became
the ruling party when Febres Cordero assumed the presidency in
1984. The Christian Democratic Party (Partido Demócrata Cristiano--
PDC), founded in 1964, affiliated with the International Christian
Democratic Association. Its center-left platform attracted a small
but growing following among workers, students, and young
professionals.
In 1970 Rodrigo Borja broke away from the PLR and formed, in
1977, a Quito-based Social Democratic party, the center-left
Democratic Left (Izquierda Democrática--ID). The ID became
Ecuador's largest party and the voice of a new generation of
reformist, professionally trained political leaders. The Alfarist
Radical Front (Frente Radical Alfarista--FRA), a populist and
centrist party, was established in 1972. Popular Democracy
(Democracia Popular--DP), an affiliate of the Christian Democratic
International, was founded in 1978 as a coalition of the PDC and
the Progressive Conservative Party (Partido Conservador
Progresista--PCP) and a breakaway faction of the PC. Because of its
Christian Democratic membership, DP often was hyphenated with
Democracia Cristiana.
Data as of 1989
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