美国两党制

The American Two-party System

No one now living in the United States canremember when the contest began between the Democratic(民主党) and the Republican（共和党） parties. It hasbeen going on for more than a century, making it one of the oldest politicalrivalries（竞争对手）in the world.现在生活在美国的人没人能记起民主党和共和党之间的竞争是什么时候开始的。这种竞争进行了一个多世纪，是世界上最早的政治竞争之一。The American political system is a classical（典型的） example of the two-party system. When we saythat we have a two-party system in the United States we do not mean that wehave only two parties. Usually about a dozen parties nominate（提名） presidential candidates. We call it atwo-party system because we have two large parties and a number of smallparties, and the large parties are so large that we often forget about therest. Usually the small parties collectively（共同地，全体的） poll less than 5per cent of the vote cast in national elections.美国的政治体制是两党制的典型范例。当我们说美国有两党制时，并不是指美国只有两个政党。通常约有十几个政党提名总统候选人。我们之所以称之为两党制，是因为有两个大党派和许多小党派。通常小党派合在一起在全国选举是得票低于全国所投票数的5％。The democratic and Republican parties are the largest and most competitive organizations in the American community.they organize the electorate（选民）very simply bymaintaining the two-party system. Americans almost inevitably（不可避免地） become Democrats or Republicans because thereis usually no other place for them go to.every presidential election in thepast one hundred years, but the system has survived all assaults.在美国社会里，民主党和共和党是最大和最有竞争力的组织。他们通过维持两党制，很轻松地组织选民。因为通常没有其它选择，美国人几乎无可避免地成为民主党员或共和党员。
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