Fully indexed, the 1990 edition of the Yearbook is the single most current, comprehensive and authoritative reference publication about the work of the United Nations, other international organizations and related bodies. The book is designed not just for use by diplomats, officials and scholars but also by other researchers, writers, journalists, teachers and students. The year 1990 was a remarkably eventful one for the United Nations and in the conduct of international relations. This volume of the Yearbook details the activities of the United Nations, its many organs, agencies and programmes, working together to rekindle a new form of multilateral cooperation for a better world. It records the diverse and globe-encompassing activities of the United Nations and its enduring efforts to deal with the world's pressing concerns, particularly matters of international peace and security, disarmament, human rights, the settlement of regional conflicts, economic and social development, the preservation of the environment, control of drugs and narcotic substance abuse, crime prevention, adequate shelter, youth and the ageing and humanitarian assistance for refugees as well as disaster relief. The Yearbook is an invaluable tool for anyone seeking in-depth information about the United Nations and its family of organisations. With the publication of the 1990 edition, all 50 editions covering the years from 1946 through 1996 are now available. This complete set of Yearbook volumes will facilitate the work of researchers of all kinds everywhere to obtain a comprehensive overview of the activities of the United Nations since its origins.

Problems of development in what is normally called the Third World have been a subject matter of concern of the social sciences, lespecially of eco nomics, for over two decades now. 1 Between the late 1950s and the current time, as Chapter 2 attempts to show, the emphasis seems to have shifted from purely economic considerations of underdevelopment to a paradigm that includes other, extra-economic considerations of a social, political, and cultural nature. The recent emergence of development studies as a new social science discipline stems precisely from the methodological premise that development is a complex process that can only be adequately under of a stood, analyzed, and alleviated by a cross-disciplinary approach instead 2 wholly unidisciplinary one. We do not wish to challenge the above proposition. However, it remains of certain economic phenomena that pose problems true that an assessment of to developing countries can offer us greater insights into problems development, including the formulation of appropriate policies aimed at improving socioeconomic conditions in such countries. is restrictive business practices. This study is con One such phenomenon of restrictive business practices as they cerned mainly with surveying aspects relate to problems of development in the Third World. Restrictive business xiii xiv INTRODUCTION practices are not confined to developing countries; however, limited work seems to have been conducted in terms of relating the concept of restrictive business practices to problems of development. The existing evidence of restrictive business practices in the development process is quite fragmen tary.