Income Taxes - Reconciliation of Provision for Income Taxes to U.S Federal Statutory Tax Rate (Detail)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010
Schedule Of Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation [Line Items]
Statutory U.S. federal income tax rate	35.00%	35.00%	35.00%
Income passed through to common unitholders and non-controlling interest holders	(34.58%)	(32.72%)	(33.89%)
Unvested Carlyle Holdings partnership units	1.72%
Foreign income taxes	(0.41%)	(0.27%)	(0.15%)
State and local income taxes	0.20%	0.40%	0.41%
Interest expense	(0.10%)
Other adjustments	(0.17%)
Effective income tax rate	1.66%	2.41%	1.37%