The purpose of this book is to identify problems encountered in one area of social scientific inquiry and to offer some solutions to them. But the identification of problems is not independent of the proposed solutions; both are based on a set of assumptions about the accepted goals and the postulated model of inquiry. Since the study of societies lies at the crossroad of several models of science, these assumptions are of crucial importance. As different models of science persist within and between various branches of the study of society, an attempt will be made to state some assumptions of the set of recommendations that will be presented. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.