ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the many ways in which the councillors, political executives and leading bureaucrats of provinces, counties, departments, Landkreise, etc. perceive their roles, how they behave and how they respond to the ongoing rescaling of statehood that contests the upper tier of local government. It focuses on two indicators of political professionalization, which could be said to be classic and connected: first, the time spent in the exercise of office, showing how the role in local government replaces the normal professional activity; and second, the level of financial remuneration of politicians. The chapter analyses the professionalization of the second tier of local government institutions. It also focuses on county councillors, regardless of their other functions, because the survey data does not indicate precisely which functions the particular representative performed at the time of the survey. Finally, the chapter outlines a typology of county councillors' professionalization by using both responses to time invested into county affairs and full-time status.
