Competition vs. Cooperation

Some of the most vocal political statements I see, seem to align with Republican or Democratic ideologies. Such ideologies are often reversed, depending on what or whom they are being applied to. But in terms of business, I think it fair to say many Republicans (or, at least, people who think they are republican, or anti-liberal, or . . . ) would promote a competition-type model. The idea being that less government intervention would allow free market competition, and the best would rise to the top. Democrats might, historically, call for more regulation of a market to ensure more good behavior. You could say they want the citizens to cooperate, collectively, to battle against those "evil corporations" that will arise from such unchecked competition.  Of course it is easy to re-frame Democrats and Republicans into the opposite roles, depending on the specifics of what you look at, even in this very example. That's not as important to me as the fact that debates can often be deconstructed into these roles. If one side speaks of individual freedoms, the other will speak of giving up some of that to work together for some common goal. So which is the "right" view? -competition or cooperation? There are real-world examples of both, coexisting. Trivial ones can be seen when we just play with the groupings of the players involved: teammates cooperate to compete with other teams. We often enjoy seeing the competition and the cooperation in team sports. But how does this apply to "serious" world issues, rather than made-up games we like to watch? Well, I think we like to have some sense of "the best" being produced, in the end. We hope for the most useful, skilled, athletic, intelligent, etc. to emerge (Of course we do often enjoy watching them demonstrate their extraordinary abilities). But isn't that what we hope for in a free market? We want the best products. Of course "the best" can get better, over time, if we allow in new teams, and allow the competition to continue. But does the competition need to include a certain number of the same players? Do we want the competition, per se, or mainly the result? I often look to biology and nature for my guiding examples. Here I think of Big Horn Sheep. The males, also commonly known as rams, will butt heads to determine which is the most fit for mating. The females, as far as I know, don't even watch this competition. They just want to know who won, at the end. Many conflicts within species are mainly just shows to try and determine who would win, in a battle. When one dog submits, the other doesn't usually go in for the kill. They don't actually fight to the death, or even towards much bodily harm. It's not full-blown competition.
I've mainly fleshed out some aspects of competition. I think I'll save my thoughts of cooperation, for another blog entry.