Heeding Ray's Advice: An Exegesis on Control Variables in Systemic Democratic Peace Research

Kelly M. Kadera, University of Iowa
Sara McLaughlin Mitchell

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The published version of this article is available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07388940500339191.

Abstract

We submit our recent systemic democratic peace research to the control variable doctrine of James Lee Ray, as codified in his 2003 treatise. In particular, we seek to determine whether international institutions intervene in the relationship between the democratic community's strength and the use and effectiveness of third party conflict management, whether hegemony is a competing explanation of third party settlement, and whether our extant model is robust when several control variables are specified. Two important conclusions are reached: (1) the democratic community's strength and institutional vitality promote third party mediation and its success, regardless of hegemonic might and other controls; and 2) Ray's teaching is properly understood as an exhortation for scholars to more carefully consider the theoretical role of each control variable and its proper treatment in statistical models, not as an edict banning the use of control variables.