ABSTRACT
Each major Nicaraguan social class made significant contributions to the breakdown of the Anastasio Somoza Debayle dynasty regime. The Conservative party represented the interests of Carlos Cuadra Pasos families and their upper-class cohorts much more consistently than the interests of its occasional middle-and lower-class constituents. The Nicaraguan Social Christian party originated in the dissatisfaction of elements of both the traditional Conservative and Liberal factions with their own parties. The Independent Liberals' student wing, the Young Democratic Front, mobilized many disgruntled young Liberals into politics against Somoza from both the high schools and the universities. The Independent Liberal party, largely supported by professionals, salaried workers, and small business interests, spun off from the Liberal Nationalist party in 1944. The new party raised as its standard the democratic traditions of Liberalism and advocated "Keynesian economics, socialist economic reformism, and Jeffersonian democratic politics."
