Monopolies themselves depend on continuing inter-monopoly struggle.

Evidence

While we [Adorno and Horkheimer] have written [in ‘The Authoritarian State’] that the chance of integral statism consists not of a general capitalism, but rather in the formation of two competing state blocs of varying composition, this principle strikes me as already prefigured at least within the most monopolistically advanced country insofar as the continued existence of its monopolies is bound to the continued existence of struggle between them. It seems to me that denoting the precise economic reason for the continued existence of the competitive principle is decisively important for the formulation of the question of state capitalism – even if the form in which the competitive principle continues to exist is largely emancipated from the market, hovering at every moment between unmediated, naked power struggles and the liquidation of conflicts between mere sham-opponents. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 613

Categorization

• QUESTION: Adorno ties competition’s persistence to a precise economic reason relevant to state capitalism — worth chasing what that reason is and how it bears on the statist reading.
• XREF: Directly engages ‘The Authoritarian State’ debate and the integral-statism thesis; connects to the revisionist aim of countering the ‘pessimistic cul-de-sac’ reading. — connects to: Monopolies depend on maintained sham-competition to continue appropriating surplus value. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 608; Monopoly is the outcome, not the antithesis, of competition. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 138; Rival protection firms seek monopoly or peace and fear endless war — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 186 (+1 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The insight that competition persists inside monopoly (that monopolies need their rivals) and that its surviving form hovers between naked power struggle and sham-conflict is genuinely dense and paradigm-shifting for how one reads late-capitalism theory.

Broader Connections

• Monopoly is the outcome, not the antithesis, of competition. #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 138
• Rival protection firms seek monopoly or peace and fear endless war #expands (0.78) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 186