摘要：The article, after a brief discussion of the Marxian theory of change, examines the interaction between productive forces, State regulation and social conflict between capital and labor in the three historical models of capitalism discussed: Competitive capitalism, Fordist capitalism and Cognitive capitalism. The reconstruction of the socio-economic history of the last centuries is aimed to demonstrate the existence of a direct relationship between the characteristics assumed by the productive forces and the level of economic inequalities that is observed in a society at a given historical moment. Conversely, the relationship between redistributive policies and the level of inequalities is rather indirect, and linked to the characteristics of the productive forces.
