Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations
quarters, the development model itself was seen as flawed. Widespread reliance on exports of primary commodities and imports of manufactured goods within the developing world meant that countries along the "periphery" were largely dependent on those at the "centre". Strategies were devised for import substitution and, more ambitiously, for economic and political self-reliance. Rural development programmes were adopted to address the rural-urban migration associated with traditional industrial development and the consequent spread of urban slums. Different approaches to development were formulated by social scientists, particularly in Latin America. The almost exclusive reliance on economic development among experts and politicians was seen as excessive and gave rise to calls for institutional, social and cultural development. The articulation of social and economic priorities and policies entailed extensive debate. A unified approach to economic and social development was devised; social and economic analyses and indicators would be given equal consideration in assessing societal well-being and formulating comprehensive development plans. Social planning found a niche in the institutional structure of the United Nations. The development of trade relations prompted the Secretariat to sponsor a number of initiatives. The adoption of the Generalized System of Preferences allowed developing countries to participate in world trade without full exposure to the competition of advanced economic powers, and the rise of transnational corporations to global prominence led to the establishment of the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations and the United Nations Centre for Science and Technology for Development; intergovernmental commissions focusing on these areas were also set up. These and other such initiatives were not welcomed by the most powerful Western countries, but on the whole, through successes and failures, international cooperation for development through the United Nations and its specialized agencies continued along its established course. It was generally acknowledged that the United Nations system deserved some credit not only for the decolonization process but also for contributing significantly to the betterment of the human condition in a number of developing countries. The "oil crisis" at the beginning of the 1970s and the adoption by the General Assembly of resolutions incorporating the Declaration and the Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order16and of another resolution that included the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of Statest7collectively marked a turning point in the brief history of the United Nations as a global forum and an agent for development and internationaljustice. These events brought about a shift in the attitude of the major industrialized countries, in particular the United States, vis-a-vis the treatment of the question of development in the United Nations. The oil crisis served to underline the dependence of many countries and regions, particularly Europe and Japan, on oil-producing developing countries that,