Paneque Martin, Andreu2024-05-152024-05-152024Paneque A. Polity size matters? The effect of country size on politicians’ professionalization. Government and opposition: an international journal of comparative politics. 2024 Apr;59(2):382-404. DOI: 10.1017/gov.2023.260017-257Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/60152This article examines the effect of country size on the professionalization of politicians in six European micro-states and a large-scale democracy – Germany – since 1980. The article revisits an ongoing debate about the extent to which either country size or government size are causal factors in the individual professionalization process. Using an original dataset consisting of 6,940 parliamentary mandates – 2,809 individuals – in national parliaments, the article shows that country size is a determinant of the degree of politicians’ professionalization. The article further demonstrates that political parties’ gatekeeper role is the key causal mechanism explaining the influence of population size on politicians’ professionalization.application/pdfeng© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Government and Opposition Limited. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1017/gov.2023.26RepresentationComparative politicsPoliticians’ professionalizationPopulationPolitical partiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess