Introduction
Economic Monopoly (Economic Monopoly) is a strong control or exclusive behavior that economic actors form in the process of market competition.
Restrictions on market access caused by economic monopoly are mainly manifested in monopolizing the opportunity to enter the market. Once economic monopoly appears, the opportunity to enter the market is monopolized by individual (or a few) operators. The actors of economic monopoly not only share the market entry opportunities with others, but also do not share new market entry opportunities with other operators.
The country’s legal economic monopoly and the monopolies of many public utilities within a certain range of franchise need to be implemented and protected by administrative power. The implementation of such administrative power is legal or illegal, and it is impossible to use the law. The form is specified in advance in detail, which is due to the nature and characteristics of administration and administrative power itself. The market monopoly, franchise monopoly operation, price monopoly, restrictive behavior and intervention behavior implemented by any subject within the scope of the law and administrative authorization shall be a legal and proper administrative monopoly; and whether the relevant administrative monopoly is within the scope of legal authorization and Whether it constitutes harm to competition, it needs to be determined by the anti-monopoly law enforcement agency and the court in accordance with the law.
Economic monopoly is not only a private non-administrative monopoly of individual subjects, it also includes administrative economic monopolies of the state and state-owned subjects. Judging from the actual situation in China, state-owned entities dominate economic life, regardless of whether they have the nature of natural monopoly or legal franchise monopoly, or participate in market competition completely like private enterprises, divide and dominate the market, abuse trading power, and adopt "Economic" monopolies such as unfair trading methods are not so-called private monopolies in Western countries, and there are many "administrative" behind them.
Form of Monopoly
Cartel
It is composed of a combination of enterprises that produce similar products. On the one hand, the enterprises participating in the cartel signed agreements on price, sales market, production scale and other aspects in order to obtain monopoly profits, and on the other hand, they maintained their independence in economic activities. There are generally three types of cartels: one is the cartel that regulates the scope of the sales market; the other is the cartel that regulates the sales price; the third is the production quota for various commodities produced by enterprises participating in the cartel. With the emergence and development of multinational corporations, large monopoly organizations in capitalist countries have established international cartels, whose influence and scale are much greater than domestic cartels.
Syndicate
Syndicate is a business alliance formed by signing a common supply and marketing agreement. The companies participating in the syndicate coordinate prices by signing agreements to jointly sell goods and purchase raw materials, thereby obtaining monopoly profits. All companies participating in the syndicate, their merchandise sales and raw material supply are operated by the syndicate. Although the companies participating in the Syndicate Alliance have no commercial independence, the independence of production still remains. From a legal point of view, the enterprise joining the syndicate is still an independent economic organization.
Trust
Trust is a joint-stock company formed by a combination of enterprises that produce similar products or related products. The enterprise participating in the trust is no longer a legal person. The original enterprise is managed by the trust in the unified management of production, supply, sales, people, finances, and materials. The original enterprise owner becomes a shareholder of the trust and earns profits on the basis of shares. Trusts occupies a dominant position in many major industrial sectors in developed capitalist countries, and they have a great impact on social life. In 1882, Mobil Oil Company became the first trust organization in the United States. At the beginning of the 20th century, trusts developed rapidly in the United States and played a dominant role in major industrial sectors. Therefore, the United States was once considered a typical trust country.
Konzern
Konzern is a monopoly organization composed of enterprises in different economic sectors such as industry, commerce, transportation, finance, and insurance. Although the companies participating in Konzern maintain their independence in form, they are actually controlled by banks or large enterprises with strong capital. Konzern usually consists of a parent company and several subsidiaries. The parent and subsidiary companies control many other small and medium-sized enterprises by means of holding and equity participation, thus forming a large-scale Konzern Group. Konzern is organized with the most powerful industrial monopoly organizations and large banks as the core. Its rise and development reflect the process of combining financial capital and industrial capital.
Characteristics of monopoly
Before economic system reform
Monopoly refers to the exclusive control of the market by a monopolist in order to obtain excess profits or obtain other special benefits.
The characteristics of monopoly can be analyzed from different angles. Different angles of analysis have different values. There are numerous analytical documents on the characteristics of monopoly in the Chinese economy before the reform. The characteristics of economic monopoly can be summarized in the following aspects: 1. Institutional monopoly is the most basic feature of monopoly before the reform. . Institutional monopoly is a monopoly that is contrary to the nature of non-institutional monopoly. The so-called institutional monopoly refers to the monopoly caused by the government's formal institutional arrangements, while the non-institutional monopoly refers to the government's informal institutional arrangements. monopoly. Regardless of the reason, as long as the monopoly is caused by the government's institutional arrangements, it is an institutional monopoly. Before the reform, China implemented a mandatory planned economic system. The essence of the mandatory planned economic system is the government's control of the entire national economy, which itself is a typical controlled economy. The normal operation of the mandatory planned economy depends on the government's effective control over the distribution of economic resources and products in the entire society. To achieve the goal of effective control, the government must control all links and departments of social production and monopolize the planned economy. But it is the result of government regulation of the economy. In the mandatory planned economy, most of the input distribution, production, product circulation, and product distribution of non-agricultural products are based on the government's institutional arrangements and are monopolized by government-designated institutions (including government agencies, enterprises, and institutions). , Other institutions and individuals have no right to operate. The circulation and distribution of agricultural products are also based on the government's institutional arrangements and are monopolized by government-designated institutions. Almost all exclusive control of the "market" stems from the government's institutional arrangements.
Other characteristics of monopoly before the reform were either derived from or subordinate to institutional monopoly. Before the reform, whether it was a monopoly subject, a monopoly form, a monopoly scope, or a degree of monopoly, it was the result of the government's formal institutional arrangements.
2. Government intervention is the root cause of monopoly. In a market economy, there are a variety of reasons that can cause monopoly. Even without government intervention, in a market economy, monopoly will inevitably occur. In a market economy, the emergence of monopoly can be generally regarded as a spontaneous process. However, in the pre-reform China's mandatory planned economy, because the market itself was eliminated, monopoly could not be produced by various spontaneous factors in the market economy. Therefore, in China's planned economy before the reform, monopoly was not the result of various spontaneous factors, but was formed by government intervention. Various monopolies were the result of government's institutional arrangements.
3. The ultimate monopolist is the government. Although in a planned economy, not all monopolists appeared in the name of government agencies. On the contrary, monopolists in many areas of the economy appeared in the name of enterprises and institutions, but whether they were enterprises Whether it appears in the name of an institution or in the name of an institution has not changed the essence, that is, both corporate monopoly and institution monopoly are derived forms of government monopoly. Because whether the monopoly in all these areas is a direct monopoly in the name of a government agency, is it implemented in the name of an enterprise, or in the name of an institution, the width of the monopoly area of enterprises and institutions and the degree of monopoly are all determined by the government. What is decided is the result of institutional arrangements, and the government is the ultimate monopolist.
4. The fundamental purpose of government monopoly is to control the economy. In a market economy, the fundamental purpose of companies seeking monopoly is to obtain excess profits. Although companies must also monopolize the market to achieve the purpose of obtaining excess profits, for companies, monopoly on the market is only a means to ultimately achieve excess profits. . If the monopoly on the market cannot enable the enterprise to obtain excess profits, the monopoly is of no value to the enterprise. But unlike the spontaneous monopoly in the market economy, in the planned economy, the fundamental purpose of government monopoly is not to make excess profits, but to effectively control the economy through monopoly.
If the government cannot achieve the purpose of controlling the economy through monopoly, then the government's monopoly has no value. Since the fundamental purpose of government monopoly is to control the economy, the ability to obtain excess profits is not the government's criterion for judging the effectiveness of monopoly.
5. The monopoly of the state-owned economy is in a dominant position, and the monopoly of the collective ownership economy is in a subordinate position. From the perspective of the ownership of the means of production of the monopolist, there were both state-owned economic monopolies and collective-owned economic monopolies before the reform, but the state-owned economic monopoly was the most important one. Regardless of whether it is the secondary industry or the tertiary industry, the monopoly of the state-owned economy is absolutely dominant. In the primary industry, although the collective economy is in a monopoly position in the production link, the state-owned economy is in a monopoly position in the circulation of products. From the perspective of the national economy as a whole, the monopoly before the reform was basically the monopoly of the state-owned economy. The dominant position of the state-owned economy is convenient for the government to control the economy. In fact, it is precisely because the state-owned economy is in the dominant position that the government can effectively control the national economy in the decades before the reform.
6. Chinese monopoly is in a dominant position. From the perspective of the national attributes of a monopolist, although in some periods, foreign capital was in a monopoly position in certain fields, after the completion of the socialist transformation, basically in all fields, Chinese capital monopolized the world. Before the reform, China's economy was basically a closed economy, and there was almost no foreign capital in China's national economy, so it naturally formed the dominant position of Chinese-funded monopoly in the national economy.
7. Monopoly is extensive (or omnidirectional). From the perspective of monopoly objects, the monopoly objects of the state-owned economy and collective economy before the reform included almost all material products and service products; from the perspective of the monopoly sector, the monopoly in the Chinese economy before the reform spanned all sectors of the national economy; from the monopoly link Look, the monopoly of state-owned economy and collective economy includes all links of production, circulation, and consumption. Therefore, the monopoly before the reform is a wide-ranging and all-round monopoly.
8. High degree of monopoly. The level of monopoly in the Chinese economy before the reform was very high. This high degree of monopoly is mainly reflected in the following main aspects: (1) From the perspective of the ultimate subject of monopoly, most areas of the national economy are monopolized by the government, and the degree of government monopoly is a high level in Chinese history. (2) From the perspective of the ownership of the means of production of the monopolist, the state-owned economy monopolizes most areas of the national economy, and the degree of monopoly of the state-owned economy is also unprecedented in Chinese history; (3) From the perspective of the specific sectors of the state-owned economy, many sectors are exclusive monopolies nationwide. These sectors include not only natural monopolies, such as the railway transportation sector, but also many competitive sectors, such as the financial industry and the urban food supply sector. , Foreign trade departments, etc., in many other departments, it is an oligopoly nationwide. For example, in many manufacturing sectors such as the automobile manufacturing industry, a company or institution has a long-term exclusive monopoly and a minority position in the country. The long-term oligopoly of several enterprises or institutions across the country has never appeared in Chinese history.
9. Monopoly relies on administrative means. Before the reform, the government monopoly in the Chinese economy and the derivative form of the monopoly—the monopoly of the state-owned economy and the collective economy was not established and maintained by economic means, but by administrative means. At that time, the opposition to economic decentralization, cutting off the tail of capitalism, etc. were all aimed at ensuring government monopoly and its derivative form-the monopoly of state-owned economy and collective economy, and the methods used were all administrative methods.
10. From the perspective of the economic rationality of monopoly, there are both economically reasonable monopolies and economically unreasonable monopolies. Due to the extensive and comprehensive nature of monopolies, the monopolies before the reform included not only those monopolies that were economically reasonable, but also those that were not economically reasonable, and those natural monopolies that had economies of scale. Industries are in a state of monopoly, and those unnatural monopoly industries with economies of scale and those without economies of scale are also in a state of monopoly. This situation is determined by the government's monopoly purpose. The purpose of the government to establish a monopoly is not economic rationality, that is, it is not the impact of monopoly on market competition, not the impact of monopoly on economic efficiency, but the control of the national economy, so the choice of monopoly field does not consider monopoly. Economic rationality. In practice, the economic rationality of monopoly has never been considered, but it is completely subject to the government's goal of controlling the economy. Whether a monopoly depends on whether it is conducive to the government's concentration and distribution of resources and products. Therefore, we see that before the reform, the monopolies in many fields were not economically reasonable at all, but they existed for a long time; the economically reasonable monopolies did not establish the necessary mechanism to promote efficiency.
11. Entry control is the core of monopoly. Although there were various ways to establish and maintain a monopoly before the reform, the core or the most critical was entry control. The government's institutional arrangement establishes monopolies in various departments through entry control, and also maintains established monopolies through this entry control. Monopoly subject structure, degree of monopoly, etc. are mainly controlled and adjusted through entry control.
Evolution
Evolution since the reform of the economic system
With the progress of the market-oriented economic system reform, the monopoly in the Chinese economy has begun to change. Monopoly presents some new characteristics. China is taking the road of gradual reform, and the changes in the characteristics of monopoly are also gradual. There are differences in the characteristics of monopoly in different periods of reform. However, in the long process from the beginning of the economic system in China to more than 20 years, the characteristics of monopoly The evolution is still very obvious. For this evolution, we can make a descriptive analysis.
1. Institutional monopoly gradually weakened, and non-institutional monopoly gradually increased. The core of the market-oriented economic system reform is economic liberalization, and the government's unified centralization and distribution of resources and products are gradually reformed, and the situation where monopoly comes entirely from the government's institutional arrangements has begun to change. Although this kind of change is slow, with the gradual advancement of the economic system reform, the cumulative effect of the change has gradually appeared, thus showing us a clear long-term evolution track, that is, the institutional monopoly is the formal institutional arrangement of the government. The resulting monopoly gradually weakened, while non-institutional monopoly gradually increased. Although the composition of institutional monopoly is still very important, now