Cartel is a group of several companies collude and give the appearance of competitive rivalry while in fact they have reached an understanding to jointly maximise profits. These companies involved in a conspiracy in anti trust activities. In industry and trade many cartel groups because their goals and action are categorized illegal in a country, especially in terms of price fixing. The purpose of this study is to reveal that cartel is not only a collusion among cartel companies, but also included outsider involvement in collusion. In sector case study of beef imports, the authors find that collusion in Indonesia through secret agreements , lobbying government through politician for private and collective benefits. This study is using qualitative-case study approach. Data is collecting by using literature study relating to the existence of cartel and articles that deals with the issue of cartel on beef imports throughout 2012 to 2018. The results of the study shows that inappropriate import policy is one of the causes of cartels and criminal act of corruption in cartel involving bureaucrat and politician privately or collectively.

The purpose of this research was to examine why the cartel is still growing in Indonesia, through using an institutional political economy analysis approach, namely rational choice institutionalism. This approach was used so as to investigate how institutional rules and arrangements regulate individual actions and how individual actors try to change rules and regulations that cause institutional problems. This study focused on two cases that depicted the interactions of three actors (entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, and politicians) which helped perpetuate the cartel. Findings indicated that actors can be motivated by the rewards and costs incurred for their actions and pursue their interests rationally. Also, according to the results, the import quota policy which aims to protect domestic producers is vulnerable to misuse and corruption due to the lack of transparency in granting quotas to importers. Keywords: cartel, institutionalism, rational choice, Indonesia