1. Middle Class Growth and Economic Development in Latin America.
- Author
-
Geithman, David T.
- Subjects
SOCIOECONOMICS ,MIDDLE class ,SOCIAL classes ,ECONOMIC development ,ECONOMIC policy - Abstract
There is a widely accepted theory that the growth of a middle class is essential to the development of a low‐income nation. Geithman considers what the effect of an expanding middle class will have on Latin American economic development. It that area the middle class is not exclusively associated with industrial development, but is scattered among professionals, service industries and to a great extent in government service. The Middle class is conventionally seen as a force for change, but it may be a force for preserving the status quo when the middle class adopt the values of their country's “traditional oligarchy”. In Latin America, for instance, a secondary education carries with it a disdain for any manual work and it tends to separate the middle class from the workers. The governments controlled by the oligarchy and the middle class support and institute programs of economic development which will not threaten the status quo. In the Western world, “accelerating economic development was a precondition as much as a consequence of middle class growth.” This is not the case in Latin America and the conventional concept of middle class growth being a stimulant for economic development may or may not be valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1974
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