  Message-passing methods provide a powerful approach for calculating the
expected size of cascades either on random networks (e.g., drawn from a
configuration-model ensemble or its generalizations) asymptotically as the
number $N$ of nodes becomes infinite or on specific finite-size networks. We
review the message-passing approach and show how to derive it for
configuration-model networks using the methods of (Dhar et al., 1997) and
(Gleeson, 2008). Using this approach, we explain for such networks how to
determine an analytical expression for a "cascade condition", which determines
whether a global cascade will occur. We extend this approach to the
message-passing methods for specific finite-size networks (Shrestha and Moore,
2014; Lokhov et al., 2015), and we derive a generalized cascade condition.
Throughout this chapter, we illustrate these ideas using the Watts threshold
model.
