This article analyses the actions of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra) in Brazil, and the Landless People's Movement in South Africa, in order to examine the form that the State assumes in these two social contexts. Its main objective is to show that in these countries, here defined as non-model, it is necessary to develop a complex theory to break away from the sociological dichotomy state/civil society. To break with the traditional analytical schemes, focused on the European case, it is necessary to embrace new and less biased ways of understanding the political forms of social belonging in the southern countries.
Collective actions; State; Land reform; South Africa; MST