The article is the result of studies performed in the Research Group in Education and Management (known as GPEG), certificated by the Vale do Sapucaí University and registered in the CNPq Directory. The study aims to expand the view about the so-called "democratic management" and the "participation" in the in the administration of school educational work. For this, are articulated theoretical and legal fundamentals to the challenges and issues that, normally, the managers face in the exercise of their function in daily school considering the contradictions and challenges, which they are exposed. Passing between the given power and the real power, the managers are pressed, on one hand, by the accountability and evaluation of results and, on the other, by the lack of autonomy and proper conditions for a democratic school management.