Party Collapse

Abstract

This chapter explores the ways in which the consequences of the Palma congress, and developments outside UCD, pushed key sectors of the party towards exit as a means of improving their payoffs from political activity. Particular attention will be paid to the changes in the relationship between the different sectors of the party organisation, and the intervention of conservative social forces and other political parties in the UCD’s internal affairs. Finally, the chapter will assess explanations for the party’s electoral decline and collapse, and will offer an interpretation of the decisions by key elite members of the party to ‘exit’.