From the macro-historical comparative analysis standpoint, this article discusses interpretive approaches on the formation of modern State, as proposed by Barrington Moore and Charles Tilly. In The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy and Coercion, Capital and European States, these two scholars developed explanatory models interrelating coercion and capital and accentuating the relationship between social classes, respectively. These models have generated wider discussions about their relevance, strengths, and limitations in explaining other processes of State formation in different regions and periods. Therefore, this article additionally analyzes the applications derived from such models that have been proposed by authors such as Miguel Angel Centeno, Fernando Lopez-Alves and J. Samuel Valenzuela specifically for the Latin American case in order to identify the critiques, contributions and main limitations in these studies.