Mitchell Dean is Professor of Public Governance, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, and Professor of Sociology at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His previous books include Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society (1999, revised second edition, SAGE, 2010), The Constitution of Poverty: Toward a Genealogy of Liberal Governance (Routledge, 1991/2012), Critical and Effective Histories: Foucault's Methods and Historical Sociology (Routledge, 1994), and Governing Societies: Political Perspectives on Domestic and International Rule (Open University Press, 2007).

His publications range across a large number of fields focusing on problems of government, sovereignty and power, liberalism and neoliberalism, political and social thought, historical sociology, and social and public policy. However he has also published on topics as diverse as risk management, e-government, political mythology, ancient societies, war and peace, contemporary art, cinema and fashion.

Originally published in 1999 this exceptionally clear and lucid book quickly became the standard overview of what are now called 'governmentality studies'. In this timely Second Edition, Mitchell Dean engages with the full textual basis of Foucault's lecturers and once again provides invaluable insights into the traditions, methods, and theories of political power identifying the authoritarian as well as liberal sides of governmentality.