Necessary Conditions: Theory, Methodology, and Applications

by Gary Goertz (Editor), Harvey Starr (Editor)

This volume represents a first. Never before has a book focused completely on the implications of necessary conditions for social science research, logic, methodology, research design, and theory. Rarely is the contrast so wide between the prevalence of a concept in scholarship and its absence in methodology texts. Necessary Conditions presents literally hundreds of necessary condition hypotheses from all areas of political science and other social science methodologies, and is authored by many of the most influential social scientists of the last fifty years. Thus, this volume brings together essential work that deals not only with the analysis of common methodological, logical, and research design errors, but also the proper means-qualitative and quantitative-to analyze the many ramifications of necessary condition hypotheses and theories.

360 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2002

About the author

Gary Goertz is professor of political science and peace studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His many methods books include A Tale of Two Cultures and Multimethod Research, Causal Mechanisms, and Case Studies (both Princeton).