1. The paper tests the hypothesis that left-leaning governments are associated with higher government spending compared to right-leaning governments. 2. Using data from 15 liberal democracies over 28 years, the results show that central government spending increases 0.4 percentage points more when the government is entirely controlled by left parties compared to right parties. 3. However, the paper notes limitations in only examining one policy domain and control variables, and results may not generalize to other contexts.