Abstract:
Ironically, it has been widely argued and this dissertation investigates the
general opinion on whether a Federal system of government in Somalia tend
to promote positive political stability, accommodate the interests of different
groups, whether the current federalism fulfills that goal and, ultimately is
there a barrier to shift into decentralized system amid of being a fragile state.
Using a descriptive research design with self-administered questionnaire,
165 participants representing the stakeholders of the society in the federal
parliament answered the questionnaire based on their opinions regarding a
Federal System in Somalia, the current function of the Federal System and
about the coherence between previous systems of government and the
newly adopted de-centralized system. After conducting review of relevant
theories, secondary research data and analyze of the primary finding, the
results showed the general opinion is that a federal system in Somalia can
bring political stability, end conflicts and discourage secession, however the
current Federal System in Somalia is not engineered towards enhancing the
prospects of state rebuilding from political perspective and there is a huge
need for reform in terms of the political inclusion through party, constitutional
review, supportive atmosphere for political competition, the separation of
powers Parliament, Executive and Judiciary of the federal government and
define the exercisable power between the states and central government and
also the decent creation of federal member states and effectiveness of
political institutions. Moreover the study find out that the newly born decentralized
system tend to have barriers from the previous centralized
system of government and the 10 years old current clan power-sharing
system. This is the first research of its kind which investigates the general
opinion towards the adopted Federal System of government in Somalia.
