Weakest-link measures embed an untested necessary-and-sufficient hypothesis.

Evidence

I have stressed throughout that secondary-level dimensions are often chosen because they play key roles in causal explanations and mechanisms. Often these hypotheses are taken for granted. For example, chapter 5 looks at how dyadic concepts in the conflict literature have used the necessary and sufficient condition structure (i.e., weakest link) to conceptualize dyadic democracy. As discussed in that chapter, there are good theoretical reasons for this choice, but nevertheless it remains a hypothesis. It has become very common practice to use weakest-link measures for a variety of variables in the conflict literature so the implications of the choice are extensive. Chapter 5 provides some techniques for evaluating empirically the hypotheses built into such measures. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts, 454

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that choosing secondary-level dimensions is a causal act: the weakest-link structure treats the least democratic dyad member as sufficient to determine the dyad.
• XREF: Directly ties back to chapter 5’s dyadic democracy and necessary/sufficient condition discussion. — connects to: Overlapping measures of NPI and affective polarization make testing their theorized causal link impossible. — Sabrina J. Mayer and Luana Russo, What one is not: a new scale to measure…, 11