The Christian Democratic Party ( es, Partido Demócrata Cristiano, PDC) is a

Christian-democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic i ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

. Founded on 6 February 1954 as the Social Christian Party ( es, Partido Social Cristiano, PSC), it assumed its present name at a party congress in November 1964. Its intellectual foundations were study centres of the Church's social doctrine, the Bolivian Catholic Action and “Integral Humanism” (a centre for the study of the philosophy of

Jacques Maritain Jacques Maritain (; 18 November 1882 – 28 April 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised Protestant, he was agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive Thomas Aquinas fo ...

). It remains a conventionally “tercerista” Party, calling for a “third way” between capitalism and socialism – a way that would be more humane and truly democratic than either competing social-political system. Founded by Remo Di Natale, Benjamín Miguel Harb, Javier Caballero, and

Emanuel Andrade Emanuel Alejandro Andrade Colmenares (born 11 September 1996) is a Venezuelan Olympic show jumping rider. Career He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where he finished 61st in the individual competition, collecting 13 pen ...

.Political parties of the Americas: Canada, Latin America, and the West Indies. Greenwood Press, 1982. P. 131. The Christian Democratic Party took part in the 1958 and 1962 congressional elections, and in 1962 Benjamín Miguel Harb became its first deputy. It boycotted the 1964 and 1966 presidential votes. In 1967, the party took part in the Government of the President of

René Barrientos Ortuño René ('' born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminin ...

, being given responsibility for the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and this was a major misjudgment by the PDC leadership. When military forces carried out bloody raids against mining camps, the Christian Democratic Party was forced to withdraw in anger and embarrassment, with severe internal divisions resulting. The party's youth organization had been discontented with the third-road philosophy for some time, and the mine camp invasions helped to crystallize their rebellion; they favored revolutionary socialism as a solution to Bolivia's dilemmas. In the late 1960s, the youth wing seceded to form the Revolutionary PDC which later became the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). Several discontented members of the party, including Jose Luis Roca Garcia, also left to join General Alfredo Ovando Candía's short-lived nationalist revolutionary government in 1969–1970. Under the dictatorship of President

Hugo Banzer Suárez Hugo Banzer Suárez (; 10 May 1926 – 5 May 2002) was a Bolivian politician and military officer who served as the 51st president of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from 1971 to 1978 in a military dictatorship; and then ...

the Christian Democratics fought for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the holding of elections, but its president Benjamín Miguel Harb was exiled in 1974 and its organizing secretary Felix Vargas forced to leave the country shortly afterwards. The PDC took part in 1978 general elections, running former Defense Minister General René Bernal Escalante, a leader of the right-wing faction of which supported the

regime.Political handbook of the world 1981. New York, 1981. P. 70. After the 1978 election, René Bernal Escalante split from the PDC and founded the Christian Democratic Union. For the elections held on 1 July 1979, the party joined the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement-Alliance with four other parties — the

Revolutionary Nationalist Movement The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement ( es, Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario , MNR) is a centre-right conservative political party in Bolivia and was the leading force behind the Bolivian National Revolution from 1952 to 1964. It influenc ...

(MNR), the Authentic Revolutionary Party (PRA), the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (PCML) and the Tupaj Katari Revolutionary Movement (MRTK). The Alliance ran a MNR’s leader

Víctor Paz Estenssoro Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro (2 October 1907 – 7 June 2001) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 45th president of Bolivia for three nonconsecutive and four total terms from 1952 to 1956, 1960 to 1964 and 1985 to 1989. He ran for pre ...

as its Presidential candidate and a PDC’s leader Luis Ossio Sanjines as its Vice-Presidential candidate.Elections in the Americas : a data handbook / ed. by Dieter Nohlen, Vol. 2. xford .a. Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. P.151. In 1979 the Christian Democratic Party won nine seats in the Chamber of Deputies and three in the Senate. In 1980 the PDC took part in an electoral coalition Democratic Revolutionary Front-New Alternative backing ex-President

Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas (21 June 1925 – 19 October 2005) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 49th president of Bolivia in 1969 and as the 31st vice president of Bolivia from 1966 to 1969. Background and early life Born in ...

, which polled few votes; the leader of the PDC Benjamín Miguel Harb ran as Vice-Presidential candidate. Soon after the restoration of democratic government, in November 1982, Christian Democratics took a seat in the

Hernán Siles Zuazo Hernán Siles Zuazo (21 March 1914 – 6 August 1996) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 46th president of Bolivia twice nonconsecutively from 1956 to 1960 and from 1982 to 1985. He also briefly served as interim president in April 195 ...

Government, but withdrew from the coalition in October 1984.Political handbook of the world 2005-2006. New York, 2006. P. 126. The PDC took part in 1985 general elections, running Luis Ossio Sanjines as its presidential candidate and Jaime Ponce García as vice-presidential candidate, and won three seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Although winning no legislative seats as an ally of the Nationalist Democratic Action in May 1989, Luis Ossio Sanjines, was elected Vice-President of the Republic as a result of its adherence to the Nationalist Democratic Action – Revolutionary Left Movement pact ( Patriotic Agreement) in August. The PDC campaigned as a member of the Patriotic Agreement in 1993 elections. The Christian Democratic Party was one of the founding components of

Social and Democratic Power The Social Democratic Power ( es, Poder Democrático Social, PODEMOS) was a Bolivian political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the memb ...

(PODEMOS), for which it provided its electoral registration. Following the 2005 election, this alliance led the parliamentary opposition to President Evo Morales.

Notes

{{Authority control 1954 establishments in Bolivia Bolivian nationalism Catholic political parties Christian democratic parties in South America Christian humanism Conservative parties in Bolivia Nationalist parties in Bolivia Political parties established in 1954 Political parties in Bolivia Right-wing populist parties Social conservative parties