Despite its achievements in many areas including economy, secularization, freedoms and civil rights, the liberal hegemony gave little space for dissent.

For example, the 1889 Costa Rican general election saw the fights between the Catholic Church supporting candidate José Joaquín Rodríguez Zeledón against liberal Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra with the government of then president Bernardo Soto Alfaro openly supporting Esquivel and almost rejecting Zeledón's victory until popular unrest changed his mind and caused his resignation.

Similarly president Alfredo González Flores attempt to tax the Grand Capital caused the 1917 Costa Rican coup d'état by Federico Tinoco and his short-lived two years dictatorship.

[5] This helped in the victory of Christian socialist candidate Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia in the 1940 Costa Rican general election.

[9] A series of anti-clerical measures after the consolidation of the Liberal State after 1870 which included the expulsion of the Jesuits and prohibition of all monastic orders, expulsion of Bishop Bernard Thiel, secularization of education and cemeteries, closure of the Santo Tomás University and legalization of divorce and civil marriage caused tensions with the Catholic Church that almost causes a civil uprising during the 1889 Costa Rican general election.

[10] Further migratory waves of new ethnic groups attracted for economic opportunities or escaping poverty or persecution in their countries made even more diverse the religious landscape including the immigration of Polish Jews, Maronite Lebanese, Buddhist Chinese and Protestant Jamaicans during late 19th and early 20th century.