ABSTRACT
Virtually all important research problems in political science eventually involve sorting out complex relationships among a great many variables. To do this, we must often employ some form of multivariate analysis. By multivariate analysis we mean the study of relationships among more than two variables. An extensive range of techniques is available to use in multivariate analysis. 1 Our purpose here, however, is not to provide a comprehensive overview of this often highly technical subject but, rather, to illustrate its basic logic and its importance to political research.
