Are they one of us? The effect of political professionalization on descriptive and substantive representation

This paper examines the effect of individual professionalization on descriptive and substantive representation in the European micro-states and six large-scale democracies since 1980. By doing so, the article revisits an ongoing debate about the consequences of having a political elite professionalized. Using an original data set consisting of the individual professionalization characteristics of twelve European sovereign states and the aggregate socio-demographic characteristics of parliamentarians at national parliament, the article shows that professionalization is a determinant for descriptive and substantive representation. Moreover, the article underlines that country size is a determinant for such spheres of representation, and it points out how population size characteristics modulate the effect of individual professionalization. Therefore, the article sustains the argument that individual professionalization and country size are determinants for descriptive and substantive representation and describes how population characteristics modulate the professionalization effects on such spheres of representation.