There is a quite broad range of research on cases like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya that indicates that though ‘going federal’ does not wish away all their problems, it can lead towards acculturation of mitigating conflicts related to resources, revenue, income distribution through a constitutional mechanism which grants leverage to all the players within a state viz-a-viz the federal/central authority. This paper is focusing on the “federalization” process in the newly independent country South Sudan. There is almost no scientific research on South Sudan and beside some policy papers on fiscal issues; decentralization (e.g. Forum of Federations, UNDP, World Bank). Having in mind federalization processes in other post-conflict states as a model for comparison, this paper uses the method of “process tracing” to analyze, whether federalism is a solution in terms of integrating minorities, founding solidarity between groups with different resources and enhancing democracy and peace.
