This article analyzes the implications of the municipal model during the Chilean transition through the concepts and practices of local democracy. The hypothesis of this work suggests that local democracy, rather than an authoritarian inheritance or enclave, was a possible historical synthesis of the transitional context. While the changes were born from a conception of democracy centered on electoral aspects, the elements of continuity were manifested through inherited social functions, which were defended transversally by the councilors themselves. Although the literature based on this model has emphasized the triumph of depoliticization based on a causal relationship with clientelism, this article discusses that relationship, since in practice the mayoral efforts were political, since they sought to accumulate political capital to power disputes based on apolitical rhetoric that enveloped their clientelistic mediations and reflected changes in the forms of sociability.