Initially an offshoot of the Transcaucasia-based Social Democratic Party, it severed direct ties with Baku and dropped "Social" from the name in deference to the conservative public. Its ideology, however, remained heavily borrowed from the old party.[3]
In 1918, the party split definitively into the Pro-Reorganization Democrats (Persian: دموکراتهای تشکیلی, romanized: Demokrāthā-ye taškīlī) led by Bahar; and the Anti-Reorganization Democrats (Persian: دموکراتهای ضدتشکیلی, romanized: Demokrāthā-ye żedd-e taškīlī).[2]