This article presents an ethnographical analysis of the modes of political action and commitment among middle-class youths who became politically active in the mid-1990s through initiatives of territorial militancy oriented along lines of autonomy from both the state and political parties in workingclass neighborhoods of the North Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. In particular, it analyzes the way the debates and tensions related to their gradual involvement in government and in the changes taking place on the national political scene since Nestor Kirchner assumed the presidency of Argentina in 2003 were influencing their formative process as well as the different paths they were taking and transitting. The analysis is intended to contribute to the debate regarding modes of collective action and the dynamics of participation and political commitment, within the framework of social movements and in relation to the state.