Explaining Tory factionalism: why Johnson’s Conservative majority has proved more vulnerable than expected

In December 2019, Boris Johnson gained a majority of 80 Tory MPs apparently united behind a strong Brexit strategy, and coming after many liberal ‘remainers’ had been forced out of Conservative ranks. Yet expectations of a re-unified party enjoying electoral dominance have both faded quickly in the COVID-19 crisis, with a Labour fightback coinciding with strongly renewed Tory factionalism. Françoise Boucek cautions that the Conservatives’ internal tensions now pose a similar threat to Johnson as to his predecessors

Rethinking Factionalism

It is time to think again about the conceptualization of factionalism in political science. Following a brief review of scholarly contributions in the field, I argue that the analytical approach based on typologies and categories of subparty groups is not very useful in explaining intra-party behaviour and the process of change because, by their nature, these are static tools. Building on previous contributions to the study of factions, notably Sartori, I suggest focusing on intra-party dynamics instead of on organizational forms of faction. Factionalism should be viewed in non-exclusive terms, i.e. as a dynamic process of subgroup partitioning. It is a multifaceted phenomenon that can transform itself over time in response to incentives. Based on conclusions from case study research of factionalized parties in established democracies, I identify three main faces of factionalism: cooperative, competitive and degenerative. I suggest that the process of change may occur in a cycle that contributes to party disintegration, as illustrated by the case of the Christian Democratic Party in Italy (DC), which imploded in the mid-1990s under the centrifugal pulls of its factions.</jats:p