The collective management of public policies requires new relationships, both democratic and dialogical, between society and the State. It also requires the construction of institutional structures that are capable of sustaining it and of strengthening non-state public spaces. In municipal boundaries, the management councils are important players in these processes. From these considerations, this essay discusses some assumptions so that they are, in fact, foundations of deliberative democracy - understood as a method for formation of collective decisions by means of dialogue between politically equal individuals. In order to organize the argument, the conditions of effectiveness were divided into three categories. The first concentrates on elements related to the formal organization of councils. The following discusses aspects relating to their deliberative process. Issues concerning the connection of councils with social groups and local powers lie within the latter category.
Municipal management; public policy; management councils; deliberative democracy