Dr. Delacroix writes, in 1980, in the academic journal Studies in Comparative International Development, the following:

The logical possibility of distributive states which are not class-based has profound implications for our understanding of the political functioning of the world system […] First, challengers will not be able to claim a monopoly of rationality. They will not be able to present themselves as representatives of the progressive forces of history, bent on freeing production from the shackles of a mode of production that has become mired in its own contradictions. Hence, it will be difficult for them credibly to draw their inspiration from scientific socialism. Instead, they will have to find their legitimizing ideology in strictly moral considerations. Such considerations tend to find their strongest support in Golden Age myths, usually of religious origin. Revolutionary movements in distributive states will thus have strong reactionary ideological components. In their purest forms, they will be completely reactionary.

Secondly, the organizational base of challengers in a distributive state cannot be class. Therefore, other structures of social solidarity will have to be activated. Alternative structures are, by default, traditional structures. The more recently incorporated into the world economy a society, the more available are its traditional social structures. Hence, a distributive state ruling a recently incorporated society will experience a maximum of tribal, ethnic, and religious challenges.

Note that these two departures from class-based challenges are additive: the activation of archaic social structures under the banner of a  reactionary ideology does not give birth to socialist regimes but to entirely new kinds of political formations. These are not accounted for by existing conceptualizations of the state.

You can read the whole thing here (possibly gated).