In the colonies you had lots of landholders who knew

殖民地的很多地主都知道
that they had the right to be directly involved in the political process.

他们有权利直接参加政治活动
Equally important, not only were more people

同样重要的是
able to be active in the political process,

不仅更多的人能够参与政治生活
but the process in which they were taking part

而且由于政治活动在很大程度上
was really localized, so people felt able to

地区化了这样参与其中的人们
understand and effect that process.

就能更好地理解并更多地影响整个过程
A lot of times you knew--or at least perhaps had met--

一般来说你认识至少见到过
many of the people that held government offices--

在政府部门任职的人
and elections could be won or lost by just a handful of votes.

而几张选票就可以左右选举结果
Now when I first taught this course,

当我刚开始教这门课的时候
that always used to be an amazing fact,

这还是个很让人惊讶的事实