Carte blanche bedeutung

Carte blanche literally means "blank check." It is a term used when person A does a favor for person B and in return requests carte blanche (aka, a promised favor in the future.) Just like a blank check can be any amount, carte blanche could could be any range of favors.

Sawyer: Help me track this boar
Kate: Ok but you have to give me something
Sawyer: What?
Kate: carte blanche

A situational term. This can take place in either a home with multiple roommates or an office with several coworkers. The first roommate/coworker that goes into the bathroom in the morning to lay down the first dump of the day has "carte blanche". Meaning that he/she has a blank canvas to do his work on and therefor set the tone for the day's defacation.

"Carte blanche" is a French term that means "blank document." Carte blanche is commonly used in English to refer to a check that has been signed but does not have a dollar amount written in. The recipient of such a check then writes in whatever dollar amount he wants or needs.

Key Takeaways

• Carte blanche is a figurative term to describe having free reign or flexibility with a budget or spending decisions for a project or investment.
• In politics, it can mean free reign over policy or strategy, with an official allowed to make decisions independently.
• In that context, the result often leads to poor outcomes due to the abuse of power or the overstepping of bounds.
• The term comes from French, where it translates as "blank document" or "blank cheque."

Understanding Carte Blanche

The term "carte blanche" is more commonly used figuratively than literally. It usually means someone in power has given someone else the unconditional authority to spend money in a given situation or make decisions about that situation. This term is commonly used in politics and business. Carte blanche arrangements are often a bad idea because of their high potential for abuse.

Sometimes a person provides a blank check to a trusted agent, such as when making payment on a debt for which she does not know the amount. In the United States, the legal term for a blank check is "incomplete instrument." Blank checks are dealt with in the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). The UCC does not make the issuance or acceptance of a blank check illegal. However, if a person accepting such an instrument enters an amount on the check that is unauthorized by the issuer, the UCC considers it an illegal alteration.

A counter check is sometimes referred to as a blank check. A counter check is a check that banks sometimes provide to customers who are making withdrawals or who have just opened an account and haven't had time to order pre-printed checks. Typically, these checks lack some of the information commonly printed on checks, and many businesses refuse to accept them due to their high incidence of abuse.

Carte Blanche in Politics and Economics

Sometimes "carte blanche" is used in politics, economics, or law to refer to full powers, a term in international law referring to the granting of authority to a designated person or entity to take the actions or spend the money necessary to achieve a result.

For example, the 1964 U.S. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave President Lyndon B. Johnson full powers to "take all necessary measures" to prevent aggression by Vietnam against the United States and its allies. This resolution has been called a blank check and a carte blanche. These terms have also been widely used to describe the powers granted to U.S. President George W. Bush "to use all necessary and appropriate force" to hunt down the people responsible for the 9/11 attacks in New York City, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, Pa. The authority was granted as a result of the passage of the Authorization for Use of Military Force law in 2001.

Carte blanche comes from French, and it literally means blank paper. This expression started to become popular in the 1700s.

Many people point to King Charles II as the originator of this idiom. Some say he gave those working for him a blank paper with only his signature on it.

The idea was that the people with this sheet could write whatever terms they wanted on it. He wanted them to complete a task, but he was giving them freedom to do it however they deemed appropriate.

Examples of Carte Blanche

Deanna: There’s no way we’ll finish this in time.

Emily: I know. Actually, we could give her the end product pretty quickly, but she attached all of these rules that we are supposed to follow.

Deanna: I agree. If we could ignore the method she wants to follow and just do it our way, we could finish in a couple of days.

Emily: It’s too bad she would never give us carte blanche like that.

Deanna: Yeah. That is too bad.

In the second example, two athletes are discussing a new game they are inventing.

Billy: So you are saying the only rule is to get the ball to the target?

Angie: Yep! There are no other rules.

Billy: I don’t see how this game could possibly work.

Angie: Think of it this way. All the players have carte blanche to do whatever they think will help them get the ball to the target.

Billy: So punching is allowed?

Angie: Anything.

More Examples

• The fact that officers do, in some cases, have to pay shows that they are not given carte blanche, according to the city attorney Thomas Platt. –Chicago Tribune

The second excerpt is about giving monopolies permission to do whatever they want.

• In practice, Gorsuch’s opinion gives monopolists virtual carte blanche to perpetuate their dominance through unfair means, regardless of the consequences for consumers, competitors and citizens. –Washington Post

Summary

Carte blanche is another way to say that a person has permission to do things in whatever manner he or she chooses.