Currently, all parties must have all 5 policies defined, and those policies only change via the history files over time (as I understand it). The Party system might be more interesting if we had two updates:
1.) Limited scope parties
However, historically, parties were formed with only one or two issues in mind. For example, in the US, the Know-Nothing (American) party was focused on Immigration, and was not consistent on other policies. One solution for this is that a party could have "Undefined" for a policy. This would remove restraints, but also might be related to event chains where a party's lack of focus hurts the nation.
Example: The Know-Nothing party doesn't focus on the economy. This would have no limits on taxation. Both Capitalists and the player can build anything, but everything costs 200% for everyone and subsidies have a 10% waste factor, since you're not focused. Also, events might trigger a factory bankruptcy due to incoherent or inconsistent economic policy.
2.) Party Evolution
Parties change over time, and they should change over time based on their supporting pops issues and prevailing conditions. If a Liberal Party has State Capitalism, but the most Liberal POPs prefer Interventionism, then an event could fire to shift the party's policy towards Interventionism. Alternatively, if a Liberal Party has been out of power for years, both they and the party in Power have Planned Economy, and the economy is failing, then they might move towards State Capitalism or Interventionism to provide a different voice.
In short, parties in real life seek to differentiate themselves, and parties in V2 should be no different.
This hopefully would help solve cases where a nation's parties are all predominately one end of the spectrum.
1.) Limited scope parties
However, historically, parties were formed with only one or two issues in mind. For example, in the US, the Know-Nothing (American) party was focused on Immigration, and was not consistent on other policies. One solution for this is that a party could have "Undefined" for a policy. This would remove restraints, but also might be related to event chains where a party's lack of focus hurts the nation.
Example: The Know-Nothing party doesn't focus on the economy. This would have no limits on taxation. Both Capitalists and the player can build anything, but everything costs 200% for everyone and subsidies have a 10% waste factor, since you're not focused. Also, events might trigger a factory bankruptcy due to incoherent or inconsistent economic policy.
2.) Party Evolution
Parties change over time, and they should change over time based on their supporting pops issues and prevailing conditions. If a Liberal Party has State Capitalism, but the most Liberal POPs prefer Interventionism, then an event could fire to shift the party's policy towards Interventionism. Alternatively, if a Liberal Party has been out of power for years, both they and the party in Power have Planned Economy, and the economy is failing, then they might move towards State Capitalism or Interventionism to provide a different voice.
In short, parties in real life seek to differentiate themselves, and parties in V2 should be no different.
This hopefully would help solve cases where a nation's parties are all predominately one end of the spectrum.
