Neoliberalism is fast becoming the dominant ideology of our age, yet politicians, businessmen and academics rarely identify themselves with it and even political forces critical of it continue to carry out neoliberal policies around the globe. How can we make sense of this paradox? Who actually are "the neoliberals"?

This is the first explanation of neoliberal hegemony, which systematically considers and analyzes the networks and organizations of around 1.000 self conscious neoliberal intellectuals organized in the Mont Plerin Society.

This book challenges simplistic understandings of neoliberalism. It underlines the variety of neoliberal schools of thought, the various approaches of its proponents in the fight for hegemony in research and policy development, political and communication efforts, and the well funded, well coordinated, and highly effective new types of knowledge organizations generated by the neoliberal movement: partisan think tanks.

It also closes an important gap in the growing literature on "private authority'', presenting new perspectives on transnational civil society formation processes.

This fascinating new book will be of great interest to students of international relations, political economy, globalization and politics.