This chapter introduces neoliberalism as simultaneously an ideology, a set of policies and programmes, a set of distinctive institutional forms, and a complex of normative conceptions of agency and responsibility. We identify three core presuppositions of neoliberalism (a fourth is identified in Chap. 6 ) and provide a brief history of the concept and how its promotion transformed politics after the economic crises of the 1970s—a process sometimes described as neoliberalisation. We emphasise the global dimension—that is, neoliberal globalisation: the global reorganisation of production and finance through trade and investment policy, deregulation, and financialisation, and briefly describe the financial crisis that began in 2007 and provided the window of opportunity for austerity, a hallmark of neoliberalism that is the topic of Chap. 6 .