Comparing and connecting territories of illiberal politics and neoliberal governance

This afterword to the special issue on 'Planetary Illiberalism' examines the ways in which the papers raise and respond to two key questions: namely: What are the connections between neoliberalism and contemporary illiberalism?; and How can the space-specific study of 'planetary illiberalism' help discern such connections while avoiding the over-inflation of neoliberalism as a planetary-scale, context-free meta-explanation that ultimately ends up explaining nothing? To answer these questions, it is argued that it is useful to research the context-contingent connections between illiberal politics and neoliberal governance both comparatively and relationally at the same time. Lessons from both 'varieties of capitalism' (VoC) research in comparative politics and the literature on variegated neoliberalism can thereby be productively combined.