ABSTRACT
Conventional accounts of coalition bargaining have failed to grasp the advantages in allowing party elites and sub-groups to challenge party’s policy and strategy. They have failed to comprehend that precisely this flexibility offsets any attempt for dissatisfaction to emerge outside the party, that is, outside the leadership’s ‘zone of control’. Moreover, conventional accounts have paid too little attention to the functions of factions in maintaining party stability during periods of political turmoil. To bridge this gap this chapter aims to explore factional activities as a key means of helping party elites to pacify and neutralise internal dissatisfaction. Allowing members of the party elites and subgroups to express dissatisfaction within the party assures the party leadership that its coalition strategy would remain unaltered and their own position secured.
