The professionalisation of Parliamentary Assistants in Sub-State Parliaments: The cases of the Scottish Parliament and Parlament de Catalunya

Although there has been some research on the professionalisation of staff in party political contexts, the topic remains unexplored. Additionally, the literature often focuses on high-profile staff members during election periods (e.g., spin doctors employed by governments) rather than political staff employed by "backbench" parliamentarians in regular periods. The paper aims to address this research gap by exploring the professionalisation of parliamentary assistants (PAs) from a comparative perspective. Based on the semi-structured elite interviews with recent and former PAs assigned to individual members of the Scottish Parliament and Parlament de Catalunya, this article analyses the characteristics of the professionalisation path of PAs in two sub-state parliaments. It aims to identify common drivers of professionalisation in the party-centred and proportional system in Catalunya compared to the more personalised system in Scotland, which is embedded in the majoritarian set-up of the United Kingdom. The paper will particularly focus on the influence of parliamentarians and political parties on the recruitment and professional development of parliamentary staff.