South African law treats planning and the environment separately, causing considerable problems when developing land. Concerns in this regard are worldwide and various approaches have been adopted to solve them. This research seeks to explore what legal solutions can be provided using some international examples, fitting them within the unique governance, historical and legal context of South Africa. / Jurisprudence / LLM

Thesis (MComm (Education))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / In enquiring after the best means of financing basic local services in South Africa, the thesis begins by reviewing the arguments for fiscal decentralisation and the efficiency criteria for expenditure and revenue assignment. The role of local government within South Africa’s system of intergovernmental fiscal relations is then evaluated. A chapter is devoted to the efficient pricing of infrastructure for household services. However, it is emphasised that such pricing is unlikely to meet equity criteria for access and affordability. The equity aspect of providing basic local services is explored further from the perspective of South African Constitutional obligations and the current basic services policy framework. A concluding chapter discusses issues arising out of the work and provides some recommendations.

In 1994 Ethiopia introduced a federal system of government as a national level approach to intra-state conflict management. Homogenisation of cultures and languages by the earlier regimes led to the emergence of ethno-national movements and civil wars that culminated in the collapse of the unitary state in 1991. For this reason, the federal system that recognises ethnic groups' rights is the first step in transforming the structural causes of civil wars in Ethiopia. Against this background this research examines whether the federal arrangement has created an enabling environment in managing conflicts in the country. To understand this problematic, the thesis conceptualises and analyses federalism and conflict management using a qualitative research design based on in-depth interviewing and content-based thematic analysis - taking the case study of the Benishangul-Gumuz regional state. The findings of the study demonstrate that different factors hinder the federal process. First, the constitutional focus on ethnic groups' rights has led, in practice, to lessened attention to citizenship and minority rights protection in the regional states. Second, the federal process encourages ethnic-based elite groups to compete in controlling regional and local state powers and resources. This has greatly contributed to the emergence of ethnic-based violent conflicts, hostile intergovernmental relationships and lack of law and order along the common borders of the regional states. Third, the centralised policy and decision making process of the ruling party has hindered genuine democratic participation of citizens and self-determination of the ethnic groups. This undermines the capacity of the regional states and makes the federal structure vulnerable to the dynamics of political change. The conflicts in Benishangul-Gumuz emanate from these causes, but lack of territorial land use rights of the indigenous people and lack of proportional political representation of the non-indigenous people are the principal manifestations. The research concludes by identifying the issues that determine the sustainability of the federal structure. Some of them include: making constitutional amendments which consider citizenship rights and minority rights protection; enhancing the democratic participation of citizens by developing the capacities of the regional states and correcting the organisational weakness of the multi-national political parties; encouraging co-operative intergovernmental relationships, and maintaining the territorial land use rights of the Benishangul-Gumuz indigenous people.

L’itinérance est un domaine à la fois passionnant et exigeant de la politique publique. C’est un domaine nouveau, très complexe, mal défini et mal compris. Du milieu des années 1990 au milieu des années 2000, l’itinérance chronique a augmenté au Canada, et jusqu’ici, tant le gouvernement fédéral que les provinces n’ont pas réussi à la contrer sérieusement. En l’absence d’initiatives de la part du fédéral et des provinces, les groupes locaux de partout au pays se sont unis pour lutter contre ce qui était de plus en plus appelé la crise de l’itinérance. L’ampleur de l’itinérance chronique est très similaire dans les grandes villes du Canada. Confrontés au même problème, les décideurs locaux des quatre plus grandes et plus importantes villes du Canada – Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto et Montréal – se sont unis pour constituer différents modèles de gouvernance de l’itinérance. En d’autres termes, il existe différents pourvoyeurs de protection sociale pour les itinérants chroniques, soit l’autre 1 %, dans chacune de ces villes. Les modèles de gouvernance locale présentent deux différences principales : le rôle du gouvernement local, et la centralisation ou la fragmentation du modèle. À Vancouver et à Toronto, le gouvernement local est très impliqué dans la gestion de l’itinérance et y a fait d’importants investissements politiques et financiers. Tandis qu’à Montréal et à Calgary, le gouvernement local joue un rôle bien moins important. Ensuite, la gouvernance de l’itinérance est centralisée dans un seul organisme ou une seule agence à Calgary et à Toronto, alors qu’elle est divisée en plusieurs intervenants à Vancouver et à Montréal. Je me penche sur ce qui pourrait expliquer cette grande différence entre les modèles de gouvernance de l’itinérance, et j’analyse les conséquences théoriques et pratiques que cela peut avoir sur la protection sociale au Canada. Je conclus que le rôle du gouvernement local dans la coalition gouvernante est déterminé par les pouvoirs des villes en matière de logement et par l’engagement des politiciens locaux pour lutter contre l’itinérance. À Vancouver et à Toronto, il y a soit des pouvoirs importants en matière de logement, soit un engagement politique solide à l’égard de l’itinérance, soit les deux. À Montréal et à Calgary, il y a comparativement moins de pouvoirs formels en matière de logement, et l’engagement politique à l’égard du problème est relativement faible. Dans chaque ville, c’est l’organisation des forces sociales locales qui détermine la fragmentation ou la centralisation de la coalition gouvernante. À Vancouver et à Montréal, les forces locales et sociales sont fortes et organisées, mais elles sont divisées, ce qui fait que la gouvernance de l’itinérance est fragmentée. À Calgary, les forces sociales locales sont dominées par le secteur privé, alors qu’à Toronto, les forces sociales locales sont mal organisées et la Ville est un intervenant fort, et en quelque sorte dominant. Cela explique la centralisation de la gouvernance de l’itinérance dans ces deux villes. Malgré leur engagement et leur créativité, aucun des modèles de gouvernance locale n’a réussi à réduire fortement l’itinérance. Aucun ordre de gouvernement seul ne peut résoudre le problème de l’itinérance, et l’absence du gouvernement fédéral des discussions concernant les politiques en matière de logement et d’itinérance était suffisante pour limiter le succès des initiatives menées à l’échelle locale. Ces deux conclusions à la fois confirment et remettent en question les théories existantes de l’État-providence. D’une part, cela confirme l’argument que l’évolution de l’État providence est le reflet l’évolution du fédéralisme, et qu’il y a de plus en plus un nouveau concept du capital social et humain en politique sociale. D’autre part, toutefois, il met au défi ces écrits, en soulignant le rôle que joue le niveau local dans la production de la protection sociale. Les études sur l’itinérance et l’État providence devraient accorder une attention particulière non seulement aux paliers de gouvernement fédéral et provincial, mais également au niveau local aussi. / Homelessness is a challenging and fascinating area of public policy; it is new, very complex, poorly defined and poorly understood. From the mid-1990s to mid-2000s, chronic homelessness was growing throughout Canada, yet federal and provincial governments failed to respond to it in any meaningful way. In the absence of federal or provincial leadership, local groups across the country have come together to fight against what was increasingly called a crisis of homelessness. The scale of chronic homelessness is very similar in big cities across Canada, yet facing the same problem, local actors in Canada’s four biggest and most important cities – Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal – came together to form different models of governance of homelessness. In other words, there are very different producers of social protection for the chronically homeless, the other 1%, in each of these cities. There are two main differences in the local governance models: the role of the local government and the centralization or fragmentation of the model. In Vancouver and Toronto, the local government is highly involved in governing homelessness and has made significant political and financial investments, whereas in Montreal and Calgary the local government plays a much smaller role. Further, the governance of homelessness is centralized in one single body or agency in Calgary and Toronto, whereas it is divided among a number of actors in Vancouver and Montreal. I ask what explains these very different models of governance of homelessness, and I consider the theoretical and practical consequences this has for social protection in Canada. I conclude that the role of the local government in the governing coalition is determined by its housing related powers and the local political commitment to homelessness. In Vancouver and Toronto, there are either significant local housing related powers, a strong political commitment to homelessness, or both. In Montreal and Calgary, there are comparatively few housing related powers and the political commitment to the issue is relatively weak. The fragmentation or centralization of the governing coalition is determined by the organization of local social forces in each city. In Vancouver and Montreal local social forces are strong and organized, but divided, making the governance of homelessness fragmented. In Calgary, local social forces are dominated by the private sector whereas in Toronto, local social forces are poorly organized and the city is a strong and somewhat domineering actor. This explains the centralization of the governance of homelessness in these two cities. Despite their commitment and creativity, none of the local governance models has been successful at significantly reducing homelessness. No one level of government alone can solve homelessness, and the absence of the federal government from policy discussions regarding housing and homelessness has been enough to limit the local level successes. These conclusions both confirm and challenge existing theories of welfare state. On the one hand, it confirms the argument that the evolution of the welfare state has mirrored the evolution of federalism, and that there is increasingly a new human or social capital paradigm of social policy. It challenges this literature, however, by highlighting the role that is played by the local level in the production of social protection. Studies of homelessness and the welfare state should pay careful attention not just to federal and provincial governments, but to the local level as well.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar se municípios que possuem algum tipo de alinhamento político com o executivo federal possuem maiores chances de receber empréstimos do Banco Nacional do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), e se esses são de maiores valores financeiros no caso da existência de tal alinhamento. Foi utilizado um painel de dados com os municípios brasileiros entre os anos de 2003 e 2010. Em ambas as análises, foram utilizados os métodos de dados empilhados, dos efeitos fixos e dos efeitos aleatórios. Os resultados indicam que o alinhamento exerce pouca influência sobre os empréstimos do BNDES. / This paper aims to investigate whether municipalities with any type of political alignment with the Federal Executive are more likely to take out loans from BNDES (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social) and whether the amounts are larger in such cases. A data panel on Brazilian municipalities between 2003 and 2010 was used. In both analyses performed, we used the pooled, fixed effects, and random effects estimation models. The results show that the political alignment exerts little influence on loans from BNDES to Brazilian municipalities.

Après des décennies de croissance rapide du droit international de l’environnement, il est aujourd’hui crucial d’assurer l’effectivité et l’efficacité de cette branche du droit. Cela implique, entre autres, de garantir la flexibilité et la réactivité des instruments existants. Cette thèse propose d’explorer les mécanismes et phénomènes permettant aux régimes internationaux environnementaux de s’adapter aux évolutions scientifiques, politiques et juridiques en s’appuyant sur un cas d’étude précis : l’influence de la Plateforme intergouvernementale politique et scientifique pour la biodiversité et les services écosystémiques (IPBES) en Méditerranée. L’IPBES a été récemment établie afin de pallier l’inefficacité des politiques environnementales en matière de biodiversité. En partant du postulat du succès de cette plateforme, cette thèse expose les divers moyens juridiques d’influences dont celle-ci dispose dans la région. Nous verrons ainsi que l’expertise institutionnelle des régimes méditerranéens constitue une modalité d’influence directe tandis que les nombreux phénomènes de diffusion normative lui assurent une influence indirecte. La Méditerranée comporte à une échelle réduite tous les enjeux du droit international de l’environnement. Une telle étude permettra donc de mettre en lumière des aspects rarement étudiés de cette branche du droit / After decades of growth, it is now crucial to ensure that International environmental law is efficient. This implies, among other things, to guarantee the flexibility and reactiveness of existing instruments. This thesis aims to develop an analysis of the different mechanisms and phenomenon that allow International environmental regimes to adapt to scientific, political and legal evolution. It does so by focusing on a specific case study: the influence of the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in the Mediterranean. The IPBES was recently established in order to cope with the inefficiency of current measures for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. By assuming the success of this platform, this thesis will explore the different legal means of influence the IPBES has in the region. In doing so, we will see that the institutionalized expertise of Mediterranean regimes allows for a direct influence of the platform, while norm diffusion in the region allows for an indirect influence. The Mediterranean holds within itself all of the stakes of International environmental law. By focusing on the region, this study hopes to shine light on aspects of International environmental law that are seldom studied

[pt] Os três ensaios que compõem esta tese, têm como objetivo analisar o funcionamento do federalismo fiscal no Brasil. O primeiro analisa as tendências de longo prazo no grau de centralização e no crescimento do governo e sua relação durante o século XX. O achado mais importante deste ensaio é que os processos de descentralização fiscal promovidos pelas Constituições de 1946 e de 1988 aceleraram o crescimento do governo. Esses processos de descentralização provocaram crises no nível federal, que levaram o governo central a aumentar sua receita tributária para compensar a perda de receitas derivada da descentralização de recursos fiscais. Do outro lado, essa descentralização provocou o crescimento da despesa dos estados e municípios, que não foi compensado pela redução da despesa do governo federal. O segundo ensaio analisa a utilização de transferências intergovernamentais como mecanismo de financiamento dos níveis inferiores de governo. Esse ensaio desenvolve um modelo analítico para explicar o efeito expansivo das transferências sobre a despesa das unidades receptoras, conhecido como flypaper effect, e as diferenças regionais na sua intensidade. Usando um modelo de parámetros variando no espaço, o estudo demonstra empíricamente a presença do flypaper effect nas finanças dos municípios brasileros e suas diferenças regionais. Finalmente, o terceiro estuda os determinantes político institucionais do comportamento fiscal dos estados durante o período 1985-1997. O ensaio mostra a existência de ciclos políticos eleitorais, a influência expansionista da fragmentação do sistema partidário sobre a postura fiscal dos estados, a disciplina fiscal imposta pela da participação política da população e o fato de que que administrações estaduais de esquerda tendem a adotar posturas fiscais mais expansionistas do que as adotadas por administrações estaduais de centro ou de direita. / [en] The three essays in this dissertation analyze fiscal federalism in Brazil. The first studies the long run trends of the fiscal centralization and the size of government and their relationship during the XX Century. The most important finding of the first essay is that the process of decentralization inspired by the 1946 and 1948 Constitutions led to an overall expansion of government activities (at the federal, state, and municipal levels). The increase in state and municipal expenditures - because of the decentralization of fiscal resources - was not matched by an equivalent reduction in federal expenditures. Because federal expenditures did not decrease accordingly, and because the decentralization of fiscal resources resulted in a loss of federal revenues, the federal government needed to increase taxes in order to narrow the deficit. The second essay analyzes the use of intergovernmental transfers to finance lower levels of government. The essay develops an analytical model to explain both the expansive effects of transfers on the expenditures of recipient governments, called the flypaper effect. as well as reasons for their regional differences. Using an space-parameter varying estimation, the study empirically demonstrates the expansive effects of intergovernmental and detects their regional differences in Brazilian local governments finances. Finally, the third essay argues that political cycles strongly influenced the fiscal behavior of Brazilian states between 1985 and 1997. The study confirms the existence of political cycles, the influence of political fragmentation, the fiscal discipline induced by the participation of the population and that left wing administrations tended to adopt more expansionary fiscal policies than center or right wing administrations.

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This dissertation examines Native-newcomer relations during the integrationist era in Canadian Indian affairs: the two and a half decades after World War Two during which the federal government introduced policies designed to integrate Indians into mainstream Canadian social, political, economic, and administrative life. Particular focus is given to developments in British Columbia, where some of the most concerted steps towards integration took place. Growing public and political demands for institutional desegregation and the granting of rights of citizenry to Aboriginal people recast Indian affairs into a matter of unprecedented intergovernmental importance.<p> Shifting between micro- and macro-historical perspectives, the following chapters consist of a series of comparative policy case studies. Individually, they examine the development, implementation, and effects of the four main areas of federal Indian integrationist planning after WWII: health, education, economic development, and welfare. Collectively, chapters demonstrate how integration was a mission essentially administrative in orientation: every policy undertaken in this period, whether directly or indirectly, sought to implicate the province and other federal line departments in Indian affairs. Not all attempts at administrative integration, however, were successful. While BC and the federal government reached joint agreements in the fields of education and health, other areas such as Indian economic development and welfare proved to be a source of significant intergovernmental conflict and impasse.<p> Aboriginal people were important participants when it came to integrated health, education, and social welfare. Incorporating ethnohistorical insights and Aboriginal perspectives throughout, this dissertation documents how Aboriginal agency in this periodexpressed in a range of innovative actions and wordsincluded important combinatory aspects of compliance, resistance, and accommodation. Many individuals, for instance, demanded access to provincial services as within their rights as Aboriginal people and provincial voting and taxpaying citizens. While post-war integrationist policies varied widely in terms of their local perception and impact, Indian assimilation remained an elusive goal throughout this period. Advances in provincial devolution of Indian administration rarely resulted in the type of social and economic integration envisioned by federal officials.<p> This study looks beyond unitary conceptions of the state towards questions of power and local agency. It engages Foucauldian and Weberian theories to show how a combination of intergovernmental politics, intrastate variables, and Aboriginal agency refashioned Native-newcomer relations in this period. Post-WWII administrative contexts served as theatres for the contestation of old, and formulation of new, power relationships. Developments in this era were to have a significant influence on Native-newcomer relations moving into the modern era.

This dissertation examines Native-newcomer relations during the integrationist era in Canadian Indian affairs: the two and a half decades after World War Two during which the federal government introduced policies designed to integrate Indians into mainstream Canadian social, political, economic, and administrative life. Particular focus is given to developments in British Columbia, where some of the most concerted steps towards integration took place. Growing public and political demands for institutional desegregation and the granting of rights of citizenry to Aboriginal people recast Indian affairs into a matter of unprecedented intergovernmental importance.<p> Shifting between micro- and macro-historical perspectives, the following chapters consist of a series of comparative policy case studies. Individually, they examine the development, implementation, and effects of the four main areas of federal Indian integrationist planning after WWII: health, education, economic development, and welfare. Collectively, chapters demonstrate how integration was a mission essentially administrative in orientation: every policy undertaken in this period, whether directly or indirectly, sought to implicate the province and other federal line departments in Indian affairs. Not all attempts at administrative integration, however, were successful. While BC and the federal government reached joint agreements in the fields of education and health, other areas such as Indian economic development and welfare proved to be a source of significant intergovernmental conflict and impasse.<p> Aboriginal people were important participants when it came to integrated health, education, and social welfare. Incorporating ethnohistorical insights and Aboriginal perspectives throughout, this dissertation documents how Aboriginal agency in this periodexpressed in a range of innovative actions and wordsincluded important combinatory aspects of compliance, resistance, and accommodation. Many individuals, for instance, demanded access to provincial services as within their rights as Aboriginal people and provincial voting and taxpaying citizens. While post-war integrationist policies varied widely in terms of their local perception and impact, Indian assimilation remained an elusive goal throughout this period. Advances in provincial devolution of Indian administration rarely resulted in the type of social and economic integration envisioned by federal officials.<p> This study looks beyond unitary conceptions of the state towards questions of power and local agency. It engages Foucauldian and Weberian theories to show how a combination of intergovernmental politics, intrastate variables, and Aboriginal agency refashioned Native-newcomer relations in this period. Post-WWII administrative contexts served as theatres for the contestation of old, and formulation of new, power relationships. Developments in this era were to have a significant influence on Native-newcomer relations moving into the modern era.