Latin America’s Emerging Middle Classes

Abstract

The global political economy is in flux as a series of cumulative crises impacts its organization and governance. The IPE series has tracked its development in both analysis and structure over the last three decades. It has always had a concentration on the global South. Now the South increasingly challenges the North as the centre of development, also reflected in a growing number of submissions and publications on indebted Eurozone economies in Southern Europe.An indispensable resource for scholars and researchers, the series examines a variety of capitalisms and connections by focusing on emerging economies, companies and sectors, debates and policies. It informs diverse policy communities as the established trans-Atlantic North declines and 'the rest', especially the BRICS, rise.

Preferences for Income Redistribution in Unequal Contexts: Changes in Latin America Between 2008 and 2018

“…Authors such as Schmidt-Catran ( 2016 ) explain how in Europe citizenship of richer countries is associated with lower levels of demand for redistribution. The positive effect of economic development on preferences for income redistribution in Latin America can be explained by its link to reductions in poverty, which the region has experienced in recent years (Birdsall et al, 2011 ; Dayton-Johnson, 2015 ) and which Wietzke ( 2016 ) endorses as having an important role in supporting redistribution for developing countries. The particularity of the effect that economic development has specifically for the support for redistribution of the poorest segments, seen in the results of this study, reaffirms this explanation.…”

“…For this reason, identifying the degree of people's support for redistribution and understanding the main determinants that explain it is an exercise of great importance, even more so in contexts of high poverty and inequality such as Latin America. Although this region has shown signs of decreasing poverty and inequality (Lustig et al, 2013 ; Dayton-Johnson, 2015 ), a large body of evidence concludes that Latin America is the most unequal region in the world (Bértola et al, 2009 ; Williamson, 2015 ; CEPAL, 2016 ) and, more seriously, that it has maintained this position steadily since the middle of the last century (Mann and Riley, 2007 ). This raises a question about the degree of support for redistribution in highly unequal contexts and its possible role in reducing inequality.…”