Cartel theory  Cartel theory is usually understood as the doctrine of economic cartels. However, since the concept of 'cartel' does not have to be limited to the field of the economy, doctrines on non-economic cartels are conceivable in principle. Such exist already in the form of the state cartel theory and the cartel party theory. For the pre-modern cartels, which existed as rules for tournaments, duels and court games or in the form of inter-state fairness agreements, there was no scientific theory. Such has developed since the 1880s for the scope of the economy, driven by the need to understand and classify the mass emergence of entrepreneurial cartels. Within the economic cartel theory, one can distinguish a classical and a modern phase. The break between the two was set through the enforcement of a general cartel ban after Second World War by the US government. The origin of the usage of 'cartel' for entrepreneurial co-operations was the German speaking region of Central Europe. Already in the 1870, 'Cartell' came up for railway companies who unified their technical standards, pooled their stocks of railroad cars and coordinated their time schedules. In 1883, an explanatory framework was based upon this novel understanding of "cartel": the classic cartel theory, which was in the same way of German origin: The Austro-Hungarian professor of economics Friedrich Kleinwächter had condensed a number of case studies to the draft of an empirical theory. Cartel theory remained for decades the product, above all, of Central European economists of German tongue. That approach was well-intentioned to the entrepreneurial cartels and in this respect was functionalist and institutionalist. It had its origin in the historical school of economics. The classic cartel theory itself went through three stages of development:  Outside of the German speaking countries, there were more or less similar theories of economic organization. These variants existed until the 1920s (in Italy until after 1945). However, they operated with different basic terms such as (in French) "syndicat", "accaparement", (in Italian) "sindacati", (in English) "combination" or "trust". In France Francis Laur and Paul de Rousiers, in Italy Francesco Vito, in the USA Jeremiah Jenks and in the United Kingdom Henry W. Macrosty as well as David H. MacGregor were authoritative writers on economic combinations. The modern cartel theory, which followed the classical cartel doctrine is essentially of American origin (George J. Stigler and George W. Stocking in the 1940s) It was based on the liberal view upon economy, which already had coined the traditional antitrust concept of the 1890s.