Diversity of capitalisms and the growth of the middle classes in Asia and Latin America 1

This chapter is a comparison between the growth of the middle classes in Latin America and Asia from the perspective of the diversity of capitalisms/regulation school. Most of the studies on the main countries in Latin America and Asia have observed an impressive growth of the economies of both continents since the turn of the century. One of the most salient characteristics was the significant growth of the middle classes. In the present economic and also political crisis in some countries in Latin America, the question of the sustainability of the growth mode followed by these countries, in comparison to those of Asia, is forcibly posed, as well as the permanence of the gains in terms of the reduced inequality and the growth of the middle classes.