Complex sentence: The Ba'ath Party was turned into a patronage network closely intertwined with the bureaucracy, and soon became virtually indistinguishable from the state, while membership rules were liberalized; in 1987 the party had 50,000 members in Syria, with another 200,000 candidate members on probation.
Split into simpler sentences: The Ba'ath Party was turned into a patronage network closely intertwined with the bureaucracy, and soon became virtually indistinguishable from the state, while membership rules were liberalizsd. In 1987, the party had 50,000 members in Syria, with another 200,000 candidate members on probation.