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The Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) was launched in 1980 and includes all of the states of southern Africa with the exception of South Africa. It seeks to promote regional development through collective self-reliance. The region is exceptionally rich in mineral resources and, as a whole, the SADCC falls within the classification of a "minerals economy'. The minerals sector currently has the role of providing the state with foreign exchange and revenues as almost all minerals are exported. Due to the small size (population, economy, resources) of each SADCC state it would be difficult to redeploy their minerals sector from its current colonial role to that of providing the foundation for resource-based industrialisation. However, the regional context provides greater possibilities for delinking and the initiation of an autonomous and sustained development process. Strategies for the regional planning of the sub-continental minerals sector are numerous and could include the substitution of mineral and mineral-based imports; the development of basic fertiliser minerals for regional agricultural sector, the regional rationalisation of the iron, steel and ferro-alloys sector to provide the basic inputs for an indigenous capital goods sector; the retention of further value-added in the region through cross-border mineral beneficiation and mineral transformation projects; the regional rationalisation of mining and mineral processing manpower training programmes; intra-regional cooperation in mineral exploration projects and the establishment of regional research and development facilities to localise mining technologies; the creation of mineral finance mechanisms that bring together the resources of the region allowing investment in major minerals development projects without resorting to the transnational companies; the development of a regional minerals fiscal and legislative regime to maximise the capture of mineral rents by the state and the establishment of a regional strategy towards the mining transnational corporations. However, to realise these regional objectives the SADCC will have to move on from its current project approach to greater trade integration with some form of currency convertibility. The project approach served the region well for the rehabilitation of the infrastructure, but for realisation of the full potential of the regional mineral sector as the basis for industrialisation, greater regional integration would be necessary.

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The research presented in this thesis rests on the premise that the administrative and legal systems of France have a critical bearing on the way that decisions on applications for permissions to build are taken, and the nature of the decisions themselves. In the knowledge that the French system of law offered a legalistic, regulatory franiework for planning policy and policy implementation, four specific questions are posed: firstly about the relationship of plans to development control decisions; secondly about the effects of the system on applicants; thirdly about the possibilities for third parties to be involved in, and seek redress from, development control decisions and fourthly about the effects of the decentralisation of development control powers that has taken place since 1983. These questions are then located within a broader discussion of discretion, accountability and the management of uncertainty. The theoretical discussion of the first chapter paves the way for a more detailed presentation of the nature and origins of French local administration and French planning law and procedure which in turn lead to a case study of the 55 communes of the Urban Community of Lyon and eight studies of development control applications which are explored through an examination of the case file documents and interviews with participants. Two sets of conclusions are drawn from the study. The first set concerns the effects of a legalised system on the making and implementation of planning policy. The first conclusion is that the legalistic approach of the French planning system appears to create serious difficulties for finding an appropriate expression for policy. In part the problem is shown to be as much a question of ethos as of what is really possible under the law, amid some examples of practice in Lyon show how flexibility is still possible even within a legalised system. The second conclusion is that once the rules are departed from, the system offers no alternative means of testing policy in its specific application, although the use of non-statutory consultation meetings in Lyon has gone some way to meeting the problem. The third is that the pattern of zoning and regulations does not appear to help the maintenance of a planning strategy. The fourth is that a legalised system does not promote certainty for either administrators or applicants. The fifth is that a legalised system does not permit third parties to participate in the decision-making and ensures that objections are seen mainly as being about property values. The second set of conclusions has to do with the question of the power to decide and the accountability of decision-makers. The first is that the legalised system, while offering potential for agency discretion, nevertheless appears to favour officer discretion which on the evidence of the case studies is rife. While offering mayors the possibility of tactical power, it appears to reduce the accountability for decisions taken. Moreover, the control of the legality of decisions is dependent equally upon the discretion of the prefect. The second is that the pattern of crossregulation within the French system of local government has ensured the continuity of dependencies between the principal actors in the planning system. The final conclusion is that decentralisation has had relatively little effect on the balance of power. In the Lyon conurbation, COURLY would appear to be the principal beneficiary of the new powers, which would suggest that more power will be concentrated in future at the local level, but that the power will not be any more susceptible to control by the electorate.

The aim of the thesis is to ascertain the determinants involved in the introduction of the 'voluntary system' for the protection of habitats in the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 in order to explain its existence and form and also its effectiveness. The identification of the determinants involves consideration of a number of hypotheses. A positive proof shows why the voluntary approach was chosen. A negative proof shows why the alternatives of using criminal sanctions or planning control were not chosen. Hypothesis 1 is that the system adopted for species protection had proved inefficacious and thus criminal sanctions were regarded as inappropriate for protecting habitats. This hypothesis is disproved. Hypothesis 2 is that the purpose of the legislation was a determinant. The thesis will show that there is no positive proof of this hypothesis although there is the possibility of a negative proof. Hypothesis 3 is that pressure group activity in the pre-parliamentary stages of its enactment was a determinant. This shows a possible positive proof. Hypothesis 4 is that the influence of pressure groups and Parliament was a determinant during the parliamentary stages of its enactment. This hypothesis is disproved. Hypothesis 5 is that Thatcherite policy was a determinant. This shows a negative proof. Hypothesis 6 is that trends in governmental implementation mechanisms were a determinant in the adoption of the voluntary approach. This shows both positive and negative proofs. The determinants in the formation of the system are then reconsidered in the context of the impact of the system The purpose of the system is then reconsidered to evaluate the efficacy of the system. This evaluation indicates the predicted defects of the system that have materialised. The results are then considered in relation to the implementation of the Habitats Directive. Criteria for reform of the system are then proposed.

This thesis explores the extent to which the arrangements of the English land use planning system have influenced attempts to incorporate the concerns of sustainable development. This is achieved through an examination of both the procedural and communicative aspects of development plan preparation. The research inquiry is defined by an assumption that the existing statutory requirements and institutional form of development planning may both constrain and facilitate the requisite incorporation. Sustainable development is a very broad notion with both consensual and conflictual aspects, characteristics which render an examination of its assimilation into any sector of governance problematic. The tendency within the planning literature has been to concentrate upon specific criteria relating to sustainable resource management or implementational capacity. This thesis argues that such an approach is inappropriate at this early stage in the notion's assimilation. The essential issue in terms of management and implementation is the extent to which environmental resources are re-evaluated under the auspices of sustainable development - without such a foundational underpinning research in the field is open to become an arbitrary activity. With a line of inquiry founded upon `sustainable re-evaluation' the research reveals, through survey and case study work, that present arrangements within formal development planning are predominantly constrictive. The planning system has undoubtedly come to include reference to sustainable development within its decision making but in a detached, partial and criteria driven manner. The thesis concludes that the crucial need to sustainably re-evaluate our environment, as the integral root of policy and proposal formulation, is being deflected or partitioned off from playing a foundational mediatory role. More tellingly, communicative and procedural activity is smothering the motivation of actors and stakeholders to take on the necessary re-evaluation. In theory opportunities do exist but current practices, agendas and vested interests deny them their potential.