Cartel

Cartel is an ambiguous term which usually referred to a merger or an agreement between competitors, but - derived from it - even pejorative stands for organized crime. The main use of the cartel is a cartel in the economy. In politics, it refers to a temporary alliance of several parties about the election campaign. The scientific analysis of cartels is happening in the cartel theory.

Individual uses

The term cartel is commonly used in a specific context, resulting in a number of substantive variants. Thus one finds:

• Cartels in the economy, made up of companies or other market actors,
• Arrangements between States Example: OPEC, or more generally treated in the States antitrust theory,
• Cartel party in the sense of a close relationship between the state and the party,
• Cartels of fraternities and sororities,
• Cartels by criminals or their gangs Examples: drug cartel, Medellin Cartel
• Cartels between people meant to be derogatory especially Example: The cartel of the wicked 'or the cartel of silence,
• Cartels as lower international treaties (only historical ): In the 17th and 19th centuries there were agreements between ( competing or warring ) states to maintain the postal and trade, the transfer of couriers, prisoners of war and deserters or for a rational enforcement of to have access to customs regulations by the right of cross- protective authorities to prosecute smugglers and the territory of the neighboring country (inches cartel).

Word history

The term comes from Latin ( Charter, French cartel, Italian cartello = letter or agreement). He called in the Middle Ages an agreement on the rules of battle in knightly tournament, for duels. Until the 18th century the rule works for aristocratic games and competitions were named. In modern times, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, the term cartel was also used for intergovernmental treaties: the guiding principle of Rules for clashes occurred in various treaties between belligerents leading to days, such as cartels via the postal and trade or the treatment of couriers, prisoners of war and deserters. Only since about 1880 is meant by cartel and the restriction of competition between entrepreneurs, but should become the dominant word meaning gradually. Also in the late 19th century joined political alliances were also referred to as cartels, the association of fraternities or cartel parties in the German Empire, a conservative- liberal national coalition. Beginning of the 20th century saw Karl Kautsky, the possibility of a cartel between states, which take the place of the imperialist competition between the great powers and would create a peaceful ultra - imperialism.

Constitutive properties and exclusion criteria for cartels

Cartels are not always easy to recognize. To be able to reliably distinguish them from other forms of organization as alliances between rivals, the provisions of positive and negative indicators may be helpful.

Constituent criteria for cartels would be:

• The partners are also direct competitors at the same time (about companies, governments, political parties, duelists, jousting knights ).
• The members of a cartel are independent of each other, they trade with each other and against each other simultaneously their interests. So there must be at least two participants, and these determine their interests autonomously.
• The members of a cartel know each other; they have a direct relationship, in particular, they communicate with each other.

Exclusion criteria for cartels would be:

• There is a hierarchical or other strong dependency relationship among the participants: One drug mafia, which is organized hierarchically and is headed by a chief can not, drug cartel ' be. Similarly, a centralized group with its own tightly controlled daughters probably a composite, but a bad form cartel '. Furthermore, it needs about an OPEC, in which all members of Saudi Arabia would be dependent, no, cartel 'anymore. Similarly form colonial empires from a mother country and colonies no states cartel '.
• The merger of competitors as a whole or on its important association members by an outside power dependent. A strict, kommandiertes by the state, compulsory cartel ' freedom without a resolution between the parties would not be a ( real ) cartel. A similar example is the German Wagenbau Association, which in the 1920s by the Deutsche Reichsbahn - was organized - that is, the market - opponents '.
• The merger takes place between actors from different levels. Such was and is the concerted action of employers' associations and trade unions not a cartel because there were no allies to each other equivalent competitors.
• The alleged members of one cartel ' to know not, but show just happens to be a parallel behavior ( parallel behavior ), cartels of the wicked ', ' cartels of maintenance objectors ' or' silence cartels ' are therefore generally no, cartels ', but pure insult formulas.