In the last twenty years, decentralization has been incorporated –not always explicitly- in the “liberal peace” agenda in the framework of statebuilding initiatives, despite being sometimes at odds with its classical objective of strengthening central state institutions. Notwithstanding discourses around the potential of decentralized systems in strengthening democracy and promoting good governance, the primary focus of donor agencies has been on the link between the empowerment of local government and service delivery effectiveness. This paper shows how, in some cases, such as South Sudan, this has led to disregard the dynamics of power sharing and political accommodation at the local level as well as the inherently political nature of service delivery. The latter, instead of increasing state legitimacy vis-à-vis its citizens, becomes a resource to be channeled to the local population through patronage networks, in an increasingly centralized political environment where formal decentralization turns itself into ethnicized political fragmentation.
