A term used chiefly by liberals of the present day to describe conservatives in power. The word has a highly negative connotation due to the fact that it is used by liberals who were badly burned twice in a row in the '00 and '04 elections.

A mix of Conservativism and Classical Liberalism. Internationalist in nature, neo-conservatism is very concerned with political freedom, democracy, human rights, and economic freedom, and believes that these ideas are universally applicable. Pro-American, pro-Israeli, and pro-Taiwanese.

Most prominant neo-conservatives were liberals who came to change their opinion on economics.

Generally identified with the philosophy of Irving and Bill Kristol, Jeane Kirpatrick, Max Boot, Paul Wolfowitz, Natan Sharansky, Charles Krautheimer, James Woolsey, and Bill Bennett.

Possibly the closest to the political philosophy of George W. Bush.

Neoconservative is a movement in the United States, started by political visionary Irving Kristol, that consists of former socialists who saw the truly parasitic evil that socialism represents. They then became "former liberals mugged by reality". During the cold war, Neocons represented an important ideological bloc against communist aggression from the Soviet Union and genocidal China. Neoconservatives believe in spreading modern enlightened values and democratic ideals across the world, if necessary, by military intervention. They have made some mistakes, like the Iraq war, but they are still an important and decent political movement. Their domestic policies don't have any particular ideological tilt, but they are mainly involved in US foreign policy. Leftist idiots and morons often attack and insult neoconservatives, but that's because socialists and liberals are suicidally anti-social.

Economically, Neoconservatives believe in fair trade and free market economy, so they support NAFTA. Neoconservatives are very powerful, and have a lot of influence in the White House. A lot of political think tanks are Neoconservative. For further details, see the wikipedia article on neoconservative.
Not to be confused with paleoconservatives, who are Nazis in disguise.

"A liberal who has been mugged by reality." (Irving Kristol)