ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the results of the empirical analysis, with an eye to the role played by policy preferences and intra-party rules. It performs a theory testing, evaluating whether the expectations derived from the game–theoretic model have been empirically corroborated by the findings concerning factionalism, payoffs allocation and party fission. Additionally, it extends such findings providing practical implications that concern real-world politics. On the one hand, it formulates suggestions to political analysts, advisors and politicians that aim to reform the electoral system, build new models of party or transform the shape of intra-party and inter-party competition. On the other hand, it interprets recent events related to the Italian Democratic Party, the French Socialist Party, or the Social–Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union in Germany, speculating on future intra-party struggles concerning these parties. The chapter concludes building bridges for future researches on party congresses, intra-party democracy and on intra-party conflict in the age of social media.
