Popular Action is a centrist and social liberal party in Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

.

Fernando Belaúnde founded Popular Action (Acción Popular) in 1956 as a reformist alternative to the status quo conservative forces and the controversial American Popular Revolutionary Alliance

American Popular Revolutionary Alliance

The Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana is a centre-left Peruvian political party.At the legislative elections held on 9 April 2006, the party won 22.6% of the popular vote and 36 out of 120 seats in the Congress of the Republic...

 party.

Although Belaúnde's message was not all that different from APRA's, his tactics were more inclusive and less confrontational. He was able to appeal to some of the same political base as APRA, primarily the middle class, but also to a wider base of professionals and white-collar workers. It also advocated scientific advancement and technocracy, a policy set that it took from the Progressive Social Movement

Progressive Social Movement

Progressive Social Movement was a political party in Peru founded in 1956. Its leaders included Santiago Agurto Calvo , Alberto Ruiz Eldredge and the Salazar Bondy brothers.-Development:...

, a splinter party which it eventually absorbed. The AP had significant electoral success, attaining the presidency in 1963 and 1980, but the party was more of an electoral machine for the persona of Belaúnde than an institutionalized organization. The AP was initially reckoned as a center-left party, but by the 1980s as Peru's political spectrum had shifted substantially to the left the AP was positioned on the center-right.

With the debacle of the second Belaúnde government, the AP fared disastrously in 1985, attaining only 6.4 percent of the vote. In 1990 the AP participated in the elections as a part of the FREDEMO conservative coalition behind Mario Vargas Llosa

Mario Vargas Llosa

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...

. The party was decimated at the polls, and has never recovered.

AP member Valentín Paniagua

Valentín Paniagua

Valentín Paniagua Corazao was a Peruvian politician and former Interim President of Peru. Paniagua was elected by the Peruvian Congress to serve as interim president of the country after Alberto Fujimori was ousted from office by Congress in November 2000.As Interim President, his main task was to...

 would become President of Congress

President of Congress

President of Congress may refer to:Colombia* President of the Congress of ColombiaIndia* President of the All India Congress CommitteeSpain*President of the Congress of DeputiesUnited States*President of the Continental Congress...

 in October 2000 and, after the demise of the Fujimori

Alberto Fujimori

Alberto Fujimori Fujimori served as President of Peru from 28 July 1990 to 17 November 2000. A controversial figure, Fujimori has been credited with the creation of Fujimorism, uprooting terrorism in Peru and restoring its macroeconomic stability, though his methods have drawn charges of...

 administration, became the interim President of the Republic, holding office from November 2000 to July 2001.

At the last legislative elections

Elections in Peru

In Peru, the people directly elect a head of state as well as a legislature. The president is elected by the people for a five year term...

, 8 April 2001, the party won 4.2 % of the popular vote and 3 out of 120 seats in Congress

Congress of Peru

The Congress of the Republic of Peru or the National Congress of Peru is the unicameral body that assumes legislative power in Peru.Congress consists of 130 members of congress , who are elected for five year periods in office on a proportional representation basis...

.

For the 2006 national election

Peruvian national election, 2006

The first round of the 2006 Peruvian national election was held on April 9, 2006 to elect the President of the Republic, two Vice-Presidents, 120 Members of Congress, and five Peruvian members of the Andean Parliament , for the 2006-2011 period.No single presidential ticket obtained more than half...

, the party has joined forces with Somos Perú and Coordinadora Nacional de Independientes to form the Frente de Centro

Center Front

The Center Front was a Peruvian political coalition formed by the parties Acción Popular , Somos Perú and Coordinadora Nacional de Independientes for the 2006 national election...

 coalition. The presidential candidate was Paniagua, while the vice-presidential candidates belonged to AP's allies.

Presidents of Peru from Popular Action

• Fernando Belaúnde
• Valentín Paniagua
  Valentín Paniagua
  Valentín Paniagua Corazao was a Peruvian politician and former Interim President of Peru. Paniagua was elected by the Peruvian Congress to serve as interim president of the country after Alberto Fujimori was ousted from office by Congress in November 2000.As Interim President, his main task was to...
  
  

See also

• Liberalism
  Liberalism
  Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
  
  
• Contributions to liberal theory
  Contributions to liberal theory
  Individual contributors to classical liberalism and political liberalism are associated with philosophers of the Enlightenment. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government and away from aristocracy...
  
  
• Liberalism worldwide
  Liberalism worldwide
  This article gives information on liberalism in diverse countries around the world. It is an overview of parties that adhere more or less to the ideas of political liberalism and is therefore a list of liberal parties around the world....
  
  
• List of liberal parties
• Liberal democracy
  Liberal democracy
  Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...
  
  
• Liberalism in Peru
  Liberalism in Peru
  This article gives an overview of liberalism in Peru. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme...
  
  
• Peruvian national election, 2006
  Peruvian national election, 2006
  The first round of the 2006 Peruvian national election was held on April 9, 2006 to elect the President of the Republic, two Vice-Presidents, 120 Members of Congress, and five Peruvian members of the Andean Parliament , for the 2006-2011 period.No single presidential ticket obtained more than half...
  
  

External links

• http://www.accionpopular.pe/site/ official site
• Congress - Popular Action