Democratic management in western mesoregion of Maranhão: approaches and highlights in the laws of Municipal Education Systems

ABSTRACT This article aims to examine matters regarding the Municipal Education Systems (SME by Portuguese acronym) in western mesoregion of Maranhão, especially the principle of democratic management in the municipalities that institutionalized their SME. The matters and inferences presented are from bibliographic and post-doctoral documentary research in the postgraduate program in education of the Federal University of the Western Pará (Ufopa). It discusses some aspects of theoretical and legal matters that underlie the design of educational system and the democratic management as premises that guide the creation of SME. It infers that, although municipalities enjoy the prerogative to create their SME, in western mesoregion of Maranhão, only 8 out of 52 municipalities institutionalized their systems based on specific laws. These municipalities refrained from legal devices that feature the definition and standardization of specific legislation and educational guidelines that allow the expansion and strengthening of spaces and mechanisms for participation. Thus, they consolidated the democratic management of municipal education.