Working Class Identity, Issue Salience, and Political Behaviour: An Exploratory Study of the German Case

Although class has long been presumed dead, the resurgence of radical populist parties and increasing affective polarisation in Western democracies have reignited debates about identity politics, social class, and their impact on voting behaviour, populism, and political discontent. Recent literature on class realignment, voting, and representation offers plausible explanations for the link between working class membership and support for populist parties. However, these studies predominantly focus on the ‘objective’ working or middle class - typically defined by occupation, income, or education – and overlook subjective class identities. In fact, previous research consistently finds a ‘middle class bias’ in most Western democracies such as Germany, where individuals self-identify as middle class despite their material conditions placing them in the working or upper class. This raises the research questions: Does the material fear of social decline also affect those with a strong working class identity? And how does this shape their issue salience and political behaviour? Despite the prevalence of plausible explanations such as the "losers of globalisation" - those disadvantaged by the transition from industrial to globalised knowledge economies, feeling left behind by established political elites, yearning for an improvement in their status quo - the empirical testing of these explanations through the lens of class identity remains limited, especially in the case of Germany. Surveys conducted in Germany have historically underexplored social class identification and its salience, reflecting the presumed low level of class consciousness in the country. However, populist parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) have effectively mobilised working-class voters, highlighting the need for deeper analysis. To address the empirical gap on the salience of class identity and its impact on political attitudes and behaviour, this study uses innovative survey data from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s ‘Cartography of the Working Class’, conducted in Germany in 2023 with over 5,000 respondents. The analysis examines whether the concerns about social decline commonly associated with ‘objective’ members of the working class also apply to those with strong subjective working class identities, and how these concerns influence political behaviour and issue salience. In addition, I will explore whether the appreciation of one's work, identification with one's work, and perceived working conditions explain the salience of working class identity, which in turn may influence political behaviour.