This paper focuses on the increasing political involvement by young people in Ouess?, Benin. Since the turning point of the 1974 local elections following K?r?kou's land and administration reforms, "youth" as a political phenomenon progressively emerged in local politics, both as a conceptual category and a strategic group. Some hardening of the inter-generational relationship occurred at the time. From the 1980s on, greater complexity was added to the interplay as migrants from other regions in Benin gained access to land and social integration through a "tutorship" system of cronyism. Controlling migrants and natural resources increasingly became the dominant issues in the local political economy. Indigenous young men are increasingly becoming involved in various new forms of mediation which tend to substitute the former patronage networks of their elders.