The paper examines the moderation process of the Welfare Party between 1983 and 1997. This time span covers the Welfare party as it existed outside of parliament (1983-1991), as it was within the opposition bloc in parliament(1991-1996) and finally examines its coalition experience (1996-1997). In this study, moderation is defined as a change from being rigid, exclusionary and anti-systemic to having a comparatively more inclusive, open, tolerant and status-quo oriented ethos. The questions which will be posed are: Why do groups with closed ideologies change their political agendas, and adopt instead a more inclusive, open and tolerant discourse? What are the group motivations and processes behind the transition from an anti-systemic to pro-systemic position? What incentives and constraints lead Islamists to moderate their politics? On what issues are opposition groups likely and unlikely to moderate? To what extent do groups moderate their policies and why? Regarding the link between political inclusion and moderation, Fuller (2003), Schwedler (2006), and Wickham (2004) argue that during political openings, ideologically-closed groups are most likely to initiate their political moderation via participation in elections, parliamentary politics, and coalition governments. In this view, political inclusion generates moderation by providing the groups with the opportunity to interact and cooperate with ideologically-divergent parties. This in turn increases their mutual tolerance and pluralism, and makes them strategically concerned about their electoral success, thus increasing their pragmatism. While the inclusionary process paves the way for changes within the party discourse, As Schwedler argued, “A given group’s level of moderation can be uneven depending upon the specific issue areas. ” Thus, I will be examining the moderation in different issue areas, i.e., the role of religion in politics, democracy discourse, and foreign policy, in order to unpack the different moderation levels. I utilized the process-tracing model to trace the moderation process prior to and after the critical events (i.e., elections, coalitions) which had a tremendous importance in the overall party moderation.