This paper is a comparative analysis of local governance in Recife and Salvador in toward the democratisation of local management, that is, toward the implementation of participatory policies. Relying on the concept of path dependency, the thesis seeks to demonstrate that the implementation of participatory policies in Recife has generated increasing returns, whereas in Salvador the latter have been lacking during the implementation of the same policies. It seeks to prove that although both cities experienced similar critical junctures and political choices, its patterns of local governance have become distinct, consolidating two different types of decision making process: in Recife, a negotiated pattern and in Salvador, a closed and elitist pattern of decision making.