What was the name for a group of german towns whos people worked to encourage trade in their regions

How will thinking on the margin increase the chance of long-term success for your business, even if additional competition enters your community?

What is the main idea of this excerpt? 1.1.3

The major impact third parties have on presidential elections has been to.. a. encourage larger vote turnout b. recruiter leader from the democratic and republican party to run for president c. generate increased party identification among the electorate d. developing issues that are later adopted by the major political parties e. drawn off of votes from the major parties to throw election into the house representatives