The article departs from a qualitative study grounded upon bibliographic and documentary research and aims to discuss certain aspects concerning the constitution and operation of the Municipal Council of Education (CME), as a collegiate invested with important meaning for the democratizatizing management of education. The emphasis of the analysis falls on the CMEs 'gaucho' municipalities of Santa Maria and Santa Rosa taking into consideration their differences and peculiarities both, notwithstanding, designed as formal intermediary or subordinate structures. The challenge to the CMEs is to operate autonomously before their countless assignments, in order to give responses which signal the opening of new paths to the municipal public education. Acting through this different way in a context where most of the councils are aligned with a formal and bureaucratized logic, and where they are still thought of as advisory organs of the ruling power is, undoubtedly, a goal to be pursued in the general effort to democratize this public space.
Municipal Councils of Education; Democratization; Autonomy; Social representation
