Starting in the 1930s, the social pressure for social changes started to build up. During the early 1940s several changes happened which resulted in the new Labor Code and the creation of several institutions such as the Social Security and the University of Costa Rica.
A dispute over the handling of the results of the elections of 1948 resulted in a Civil War which lasted two months, from which the figure of Jose Figueres emerged as the new leader of the country. The army was then abolished as a permanent entity, and a separated entity (the Supreme Elections Tribunal) is created to rule and handle the electoral processes.
The social reforms were not taken away by the new government and the country started an era of modernization of its institutions and its economy with the State assuming a much more dynamic role in the socio economical activity of the country. In 1949 a new Constitution (still in effect) is approved.