Ecuador

B

Health and Welfare

Effective programs designed to check communicable diseases have been instituted in Ecuador. The country has greatly reduced the incidence of yellow fever, malaria, and tuberculosis. Malnutrition and infant mortality, however, still pose serious problems. In 1991 an outbreak of cholera spread to Ecuador from Peru. More than 35,000 cases were diagnosed and 606 people died.

A government-sponsored social security program, in existence since 1942, provides farmers, domestic workers, artisans, and professional people with such benefits as health, accident, maternity, and unemployment insurance, as well as old-age pensions. In 2004 the country had 1 physician for every 677 inhabitants.

C

Legislature

Legislative power in Ecuador is vested in the unicameral National Congress. Its 100 members are elected by province from lists of candidates drawn up by political parties. All members of Congress serve four-year terms. In addition to lawmaking, Congress ratifies treaties and chooses judges for the country’s supreme and divisional courts.

D

Political Parties

Traditionally, the important political groups were the Conservative Party and the Liberals (officially the Liberal Radical Party). The Conservatives spoke for the landed aristocracy and the Catholic Church. Their stronghold was the capital, Quito. The Liberals represented the country’s wealthy and anticlerical mercantile elite. Their base was Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city and commercial center. Until the second half of the 20th century, the great majority of the population had no political voice. The real stakes of political conflicts, whether electoral or violent, were the division of spoils among groups within the upper classes.

---

---

Since World War II (1939-1945) and particularly since the transition to civilian rule in 1979, new political parties and movements have emerged to challenge the dominance of the two traditional parties. Although the social structure has not basically changed, the vote has been vastly extended. Ecuadorian political life has become much more varied and open, and the two traditional parties have dwindled into relative insignificance. In the early 21st century Ecuador had more than ten political parties, and they often formed coalitions to support candidates for election. Some of the more important parties include the leftist People’s Democracy Party, the populist Ecuadorian Roldosist Party, the centrist Party of the Democratic Left, and the Native American Pachakutik Movement-New Country. In the 1990s Native Americans gained increased influence over Ecuador’s politics through both the Pachakutik party and the Ecuadorian Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie), a group led by Native American farmers.

E

Local Government

Each province of Ecuador is administered by a governor, who is appointed by the country’s president, and a popularly elected provincial council. Urban cantons popularly elect a municipal council, which, in turn, elects the council officers. Each rural canton and each parish is administered by an official who is appointed by the president.

F

Judiciary

The court system of Ecuador includes a supreme court, 15 divisional courts, and 40 provincial courts. Criminal cases are heard before a “special jury,” consisting of one judge and three members of the bar. Capital punishment is prohibited.