The book examines the rise of the amalgam of economic and political ideas we know as neo-liberalism and how these became the defining orthodoxy of our times. It investigates the inexorable global spread of market economies and how neo-liberal agendas are accommodated or hijacked in collisions with authoritarian states and populist oligarchies. The contributors address conflicts within the neo-liberal camp itself, and ask whether neo-liberalism, with its inherent distrust of politics and fear of society, requires an illiberal state defined by techno-managerial rule, or whether it invites descent into populist social contracts.