Splits Emerging

This does not mean that the Party will develop formal splits other than those such as Libertas and Pol-link. In the near future the Party can expect to remain intact due mainly to the present leadership and the undemocratic structure of the Party. In the long term though, the National Party will be unable to cope with the more right-wing elements and these may brake away. This will be especially so if Muldoon is replaced withsomeone incapable of appeasing the rightwing with tough speeches and jargon to match.

The other major factor in uniting a very "middle of the road" party is their opposition to socialism. This fact shows the power of ideology as the definitions of socialism are as varied as those of the

Labour Party. Some see creeping socialism in the form of the welfare state, others see it in the new state capitialist nations of Eastern Europe.

Nevertheless, it is a powerful tool exploited very effectively by Muldoon to keep the Party thinking that competition and free enterprise are somehow possible now.