This article discusses the implantation of municipal councils in small Brazilian municipalities in Brazil, characteristically representing over half of the country's existing municipalities. Our hypothesis is that small municipalities can have a veritable "microscopic" function, revealing phenomena that, albeit universal, tend to get lost within the greater complexity of political relations in large cities. The work is divided into two parts. In the first one, we make a brief commentary on the process of consolidation and dissemination of a bias that is a frequent part of studies on rural Brazil and affects analyses of local power: we argue that theory should not relegate small municipalities to the role of places that have been left behind, lacking in civic consciousness and characterized by low degrees of democratic political culture. In the second part, we present some empirical data from research on councils in the Western region of the state of Paraná which suggest that, in spite of evident limitations, these institutions may function as an alternative route of access to political resources and for this very reason become a scenario of conflict. In the last instance, it is the nature of this dispute that determines the characteristic inconstancy in the way in which councils in different places are able to perform.
local power; municipal councils; clientelism; participation
