ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the strategies employed by party leaders who operate in a decentralised context to pacify and neutralise the dissatisfaction of elite and party members. It complements the analysis in Chapter 4 of the manifestations of intraparty conflicts where it was shown that in the cases observed intra-elite and follower’s opposition adopted the ‘voice’ mode within party organs and parliament. The analysis covers four decentralised parties, namely, the Italian Christian Democratic Party (1976-79), The British Labour Party and Liberal Party (1977-78), and the French Socialist Party (1988-91). I hope to show that, in the cases observed, decentralised parties have tended to resolve internal conflicts by emphasising the alliance’s decisive preferences and by tolerating factional activities as well as the formation of new factions.
