This paper examines the collective experience developed since the mid 1980 in a rural community of Northeastern semi-arid region - Lagoa dos Cavalos (Russas, Ceará). The land tenure pattern is based on fragmentation by inheritance, and its formal registration enables a peculiar form of organization that ensures the population certain autonomy in collective decisions on local development. The goal of this article is to check who has power and responsibility in the process of collective action coordination, the profile and the role of these actors. The method is based on qualitative research, combining the use of witness statements, documentary and bibliographical sources. Intentional non-probability sampling was used for the definition of the actors to be interviewed. The conclusion points that power and responsibility are delegated to two types of local leaders, who hold the recognition and legitimacy to meet the demands inherent in the work of collective activities coordination or for mediation between the location, the external advisors and the world, keeping on autonomy. The external advisors provide technical and political support, and facilitate the access to financial resources. Both local and external advisors leaders play an important role in local development, but are dependent on the local organization that has created mechanisms to build cooperation and coordination of action of those involved.