ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the process of selection of the party platform in key parliamentary debates and in electoral manifestos, to evaluate whether and to what extent factions bind the party leader and limit the possibility of a policy shift from one election to the following one. The results show that party positions are linked with factional preferences and factions bargain over the party platform following a kind of proportionality rule. Overall, the party works as a ‘bounded oligarchy’: the leader needs to consider the stances of all party factions for the sake of enhancing party unity. Such effect is stronger when new general elections approach and the need for party unity is heightened. However, in line with the cartel party theory, leaders who are directly selected by a wide ‘selectorate’ can get rid of factional ties.
