ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a brief introduction to the main strands of thought in this area which make competition a political, legal and economic chameleon. There are a number of concepts which underlie competition policy and which form the theoretical premise upon which regulatory provisions are based. Competition is the principal regulator of commercial forces in a capitalist market, presuming that individual competitors' motivating force derives from the pursuit of self-interest. Competition policy is deeply embedded in the way one views human nature and the role of society and the state. The main schools of thought in terms of competition policy are the Chicago and the Brussels school of thought. Generally accepted both in the Chicago and in the Brussels school of thought is that monopolies are undesirable. Competition policy in particular fails to address oligopolies and it appears that other systems, in particular the almost ad hoc UK system, if one views oligopoly as a problem at all.
