Abstract
Many authors present the term "competitiveness" in a sense of ability to defeat rivals to achieve goals. Moreover, many economists rely on the definition of "competition" as a "contest". Competition is a continuous trend of methods of strive in different areas constantly applying new approaches. Competitiveness can ensure the continuity of this process. Competition is a struggle, that is, the ability to take action in any situation at any time to overcome it. Competition is the contest of organizations in the same market sector with similar interests. The intensity and structure of competition affect its forms and level. In general, the concepts of competition and competitiveness are studied in depth and comprehensively in Economics. Despite of that there is no unified definition of these concepts among scholars, and each researcher provides various definitions from own perspective of the field of study. This article discusses the history of the concept of economic competition in chronological order. The authors analyzed the basic conceptual approaches of economic thoughts of the development of economic competition according to their classifications. The main attention is paid to the concept of competition in the economic sense. The author offers a vision of the concept of economic competition This indicates the complexity and importance of the issue, as well as the need for further theoretical and practical research in this area.