Left government center of gravity. This is an index of the partisan left-right “center of gravity”
developed by Cusack (1997). It is based on (i) Castles and Mair’s (1984) codings of government
parties’ placement on a left-right scale, weighted by (ii) their decimal share of cabinet portfolios.
The index varies from 0 (extreme right) to 4 (extreme left), although most observations are much
closer to the mean. The data was generously made available by Thomas Cusack.