Is the Chilean municipality an agent of social development of its district? How is it organized to carry out this endeavor? What are the actual styles of Municipal management? What are the characteristics of local social planning? Fieldwork done between 1986 and 1987 in thirteen municipalities that concentrate the poorer areas of Santiago, aimed to find an answered to these and other similar questions. The article describes this research and highlights its main results emphasizing the weakness of Chilean local government as an agent of social development.