But elections are open and fair; the press is free; and there is substantial feedback from the governed to the government. In the 1980s, democracy survived encroachment by contras and their local supporters, and Nicaragua's Sandinistas fighting them. The dominant party since the 1948 revolution has been the National Liberation Party (PLN), traditionally social democratic but market-oriented in economic policy outlook. The stability of its democracy and consensus of its moderate development policies were confirmed when the moderate conservative Rafael Angel
Calderon was elected president in 1990. In large measure he continued the policies of the previous PLN president Oscar Arias. Elections have continued at regular four-year intervals; most recently, Abel Pacheco of the Social Christian Unity Party, a psychiatrist and former television commentator, was elected president in 2002. In sum, Costa Rica has had among the most democratic histories in the developing world, even if it falls short by Western standards. At a time when the stability of democracy is being questioned again in South America in the wake of the Argentina crisis, Costa Rica has been completely stable despite its own economic slump.