The revolutionary Government expanded the state, reorganised the Government , developed a new constitution (1987), and held democratic elections ( 1984, 1990), FSLN National Directorate member Daniel Ortega Saavedr, elected president in 1984, lost the 1990 election to the Union National Opositora (UNO - a twenty party coalition)and transfered power to Violera Barriors & Chamarro. Even in defeat, the FSNL retained widespread popular support and close ties to organized labor and the military.
Nicaragua's party system, political institutions, state structures, and political economy bear the imprint of its complex political history and revolutionary experiences. The conservative and liberal (later PLN) parties arose from regional ideological cnflicts before independence and became loose, non-ideological, personalistic movements among the nation's agrarian bourgeoisie. Conservative dominance (1857-1893) was broken by rising middle sector support for the Liberals Conservative collaboration with US occupation after 1912 and later with the Somozas further eroded and divided the party.The Somozas' PLN lost crdibility , splintered, and eventually declined through its corruption . Liberal and conservative splinter groups persisted throughout the revolution and several joined the victorious UNO coalition.
