But as party membership fell (in part because of Iraq), the reliance on rich individuals increased.
The PRD party membership makes up almost exactly 20% of the 3.3 million population.
Sure enough, party membership increases when people feel there is a big choice to be made.
These include private entrepreneurs, a class once regarded as exploitative and banned from party membership.
Labour party membership has fallen from 405, 000 in 1997 to 361, 000, according to the most recent figures.
They were told their care was exemplary, but their party membership presented a "safeguarding issue for the children".
And I think with an enthusiastic, inspired Labour Party membership, which I believe I can do, we can achieve that.
Slumping party membership in the decades since is yoked to a decline in voting along class lines an unambiguously good thing.
Mr Feng's father got his party membership back, Mr Feng's sentence was reduced to three years and his brother was released.
Spokesman Stuart Gulleford said Mr Ryall's party membership had been "terminated" because "we do not allow BNP members to be in UKIP".
"About 23, 000 people have been dropped from party membership, " says Gautam Deb.
Some suggest that spiralling campaign costs and the decline of party membership have forced fundraisers to take money from whatever source they can.
And she asked Mr Thomson to suspend his Labor Party membership.
There is thus a greater potential for German far-right parties to succeed at the ballot box than recent election results and party membership figures might suggest.
They recognized that the party is the only game in town and that party membership has significant advantages, such as career advancement, social status, or personal connections.
Since party membership still is linked to the availability of economic opportunities, a sizable proportion of this excluded group is bound to feel that the system has cheated them.
Officials have ignored his application to regain his Communist Party membership, which was taken from him in 1998 for allegedly organising thousands of people to submit petitions to the government.
Ozawa still controls the largest block of DPJ votes and continues to act as pre-eminent power broker, despite having had his party membership suspended as punishment for campaign finance law violations.
As well as making government more accountable, he wants to revive public trust and interest in politics, which as falling election turnouts and party membership arguably attest have waned in Britain and elsewhere.
Reports in Japan say Ichiro Ozawa, who leads the biggest faction despite the suspension of his party membership over a political funding scandal, is unlikely to support the former foreign minister.
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Zhukov's tale is, in many ways, typical of his times from the relative rags of the educated pre-revolutionary Russian peasantry to the riches of state service, party membership and an illustrious military career.
He proposes to unite the various parts of the Tory party under a single board, allow members to vote directly for the leader and candidates, and to build a mass party membership.
But John Strafford, who chairs the Campaign for Conservative Democracy group, said it was another "nail in the coffin for party membership and party democracy" and was "more interference from Conservative central office".
The danger for Republicans is that by embracing the hard right Tea Party membership, they might lose a more moderate, but still Republican-leaning demographic, those middle Americans who drink their coffee from Dunkin' Donuts.
The committee's review - which is looking at several aspects of presiding officer elections - is considering whether they would be formally required to suspend political party membership while they are in the job.
In a few years' time, this could mean that in urban China at least, the party's grassroots activities will be confined mainly to government departments and institutions, in which party membership remains a prerequisite for advancement.
We are going and taking the fight to our opponent in this contest, David Davis - we are showing that we're energetic, full of new ideas and we're out there to win as many votes for the Conservatives Party membership as possible.
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When I became party leader we decided to change that, we expanded the party membership and we went out and sought donations from business and individual entrepreneurs as well because we said let's, you know, balance where the Labour Party gets its funding from.
BBC: NEWS | Programmes | Breakfast with Frost | Economy is key battleground
Back in the late 1950s, when Saddam consecrated his party membership by wielding a pistol in a botched assassination attempt against Iraq's then president, Abdul Karim Qasim, the Baath was favoured by Western powers as a foil to both the powerful Iraqi Communist Party and to the pro-Russian Nasserists.
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