A drive circuit of the present invention is a drive circuit for driving a display element in accordance with grayscale information, which circuit outputs a drive waveform controlled through (i) plural-stepped voltage amplitude modulation and (ii) a pulse width modulation which is settable for each voltage amplitude of the plural-stepped voltage amplitude modulation, the drive circuit including an output control section for (A) latching a pulse width corresponding to a maximum voltage amplitude, according to the grayscale information, which amplitude is one of plural steps of amplitudes of the drive waveform, and which amplitude is to be outputted, so as to control a pulse width of the maximum voltage amplitude, and (B) outputting a maximum pulse width for a voltage amplitude smaller than the maximum voltage amplitude. With this drive circuit, it is possible to realize a drive circuit, whose circuit scale is smaller, for driving a display device including luminescent elements arranged in a matrix manner, the drive circuit generating a drive signal having been controlled by a voltage amplitude modulation (AM) and a pulse width modulation (PWM)