This study aims to understand management in the Brazilian educational policy for basic education under the Government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (the Lula Government), through documentary and theoretical-bibliographic research. It begins by addressing the Lula Government, and its main initiatives for basic education. It then presents the actions of that Government for the management of basic education, concluding that the Lula Government presents initiatives with mechanisms of democratic management of education, with a view to training for citizenship, participation of citizens in the discussions, decision-making, and materialization of actions according to their wishes. But it also has actions with mechanisms of managerial management aimed at effective strategic planning that only allows for the participation of the school community in the implementation of the tasks previously thought of at Government level. Their purpose is the search for performance and results in school education, these being actions that were emphasized by the Lula Government. Thus, in the regulatory sphere, democratic management is still established as the management conception that should prevail in Brazilian education. Meanwhile, managerial management has been incorporated as one of the main initiatives of the Union in this Government.