POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS IN THE USA

Текст нужно перевести, выписывая незнакомые слова с переводом. Компьютерный и письменный переводы не допускаются!!!

1. Politics in the United States has evolved a two-party system. The two leading parties are the Democrats and the Republicans. Sometimes the Democrats are associated with labour, and the Republicans with business and industry. Republicans also tend to oppose the greater involvement of the federal government in some areas of public life, which they consider to be the responsibility of the states and communities. Democrats tend to favour a more active role of the central government in social matters. But besides these two there are other parties in the USA. Minor parties occasionally win offices at lower levels of government, but they don’t play a role in national politics.

2. To distinguish between the parties is often difficult. The traditional European terms of “right” and “left”, or “conservative” and “liberal” do not quite fit the American system. There is a lot of overlapping of philosophy and programs of the parties. So very often it is not the party platform of a candidate which determines a citizen’s decision to vote or not to vote for him, but the personal qualities of a candidate (charisma) or family traditions which are the most important in determining party membership. Historical reasons are also important. Many people in the South have remained Democratic since the Civil War, when a Republican administration led the victorious Northern army against the southern forces. There is a growing tendency among people to split their vote, which means that they choose Democrats for some offices and Republicans for some other offices.

3. The Presidential election is held every four years in November. Anyone who is an American citizen, at least 18 years of age and is registered to vote may vote. The national presidential elections really consist of two separate campaigns: one is for the nomination of candidates at national party conventions. The other is to win the actual election.

4. The nominating race is a competition between members of the same party. They run in a succession of state primaries and caucuses (which take place between March and June). They hope to gain a majority of delegate votes for their national party conventions (in July and August). The party convention then votes to select the party’s official candidate for the presidency. Then follow several months of presidential campaign by the candidates.

5. All tremendous campaign costs are financed with federal funds with equal amounts of money for each major party, and they are not allowed to spend more than that. But at the time of the primary campaigns the competing candidates also receive private contributions.

6. In November of the election year the voters across the nation go to the polls. If the majority of the popular votes in a state go to the Presidential (and vice-presidential) candidate of one party, then the person is supposed to get all of that state’s “electoral votes”. These electoral votes are equal to the number of Senators and Representatives each state has in Congress. The candidate with the largest number of these electoral votes wins the election. Each state’s electoral votes are formally reported by the “Electoral College”. In January of the following year, in a joint session of Congress, the new President and Vice-President are officially announced.

national party convention – национальный партийный съезд

nominating race – предвыборная гонка

primaries – первичные выборы

caucuses – съезд лидеров политической партии

go to the polls – идти на избирательный участок

electoral votes – голоса выборщиков

Electoral College – коллегия выборщиков

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