Figure a big government advocate is courting leaders (9)
I believe the answer is:
statistic
'figure' is the definition.
(statistics are figures)
'a big government advocate is courting leaders' is the wordplay.
'a big government advocate' becomes 'statist' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'leaders' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letters of 'is courting' is 'ic'.
'statist'+'ic'='STATISTIC'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for statistic that I've seen before include "One single item of data" , "Collector's item" , "part of a table perhaps" , "E.g. crime figure" , "Piece of data" .)