Income Taxes - Reconciliation of Provision for Income Taxes to U.S Federal Statutory Tax Rate (Detail)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2015	Dec. 31, 2014	Dec. 31, 2013
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Statutory U.S. federal income tax rate	35.00%	35.00%	35.00%
Income passed through to common unitholders and non-controlling interest holders(1)	(37.24%)	(28.56%)	(29.23%)
Unvested Carlyle Holdings partnership units	1.87%	2.92%	2.03%
Foreign income taxes	(1.78%)	(1.90%)	(1.88%)
State and local income taxes	4.13%	0.25%	0.17%
Valuation allowance establishment impacting provision for income taxes	(3.88%)	0.43%	1.50%
Other adjustments	2.42%	(0.40%)	(0.93%)
Effective income tax rate	0.52%	7.74%	6.66%