This article analyses the democratic question in Brazil, focusing on the dinamycs of the local politics. Based on the evidences that show the main role of the municipality in the democraic process, as it was established in the federative model of the 1988 Constitution, for instance, the model of resources distribution and the model of social policies, this work analyses in a general way the map of values and opinions of the local elites and leaderships in what refers to the competences of different levels of government. The data were produced in the research Democracy and local government, with 450 interviews conducted with Brazilian local leaderships.
federalism; municipality; local politics; leadership; values
