The dogs that did bark

Abstract Chapter 7 further highlights the importance of strong affective identities in market cosmopolitans’ electoral behaviour by drawing a contrast between these voters and welfare nationalists. While both groups of voters are likely to have become more distant from their usual parties, I argue that on account of welfare nationalists’ unfavourable socio-economic circumstances, they are likely to have shed the affective ties that have prevented market cosmopolitans from realigning. Consistent with this, analyses of British and German data show that where market cosmopolitans are notably stable in their party choices, welfare nationalists show high electoral volatility. In line with this, spatial analyses presented in the chapter show that, unlike market cosmopolitans, in most cases, welfare nationalists do not vote less spatially than other voters. The results highlight a process of ‘asymmetrical realignment’ in Western Europe, in which political change has played out differently among these two groups of voters.