This paper discusses, from a comparative perspective, selected features of democratic management in Brazilian and Portuguese Education by revising key literature and its legal framework, problematizing the dichotomy among the diffusion of its ideas and its actual operability among public policies. The general conclusion, notes that, although both central governments have emphasized the decentralization discourse, they have both failed to effectively overcome the rhetoric level, since advances and setbacks in this process have constituted some movements of devolution of powers, they are still imprinted by the same centralized logic.
Democratic management of education; Decentralization of education; Municipalization of education; Compared education; Brazil-Portugal