In 2016, Thomas Greven suggested that right-wing populism is a cause of right-wing terrorism. Increased migration thus caused greater resentment and thus greater motive for attacks. Conversely, a 2019 study found that economic predictors did not predict right-wing terrorism in Europe, rather levels of extra-European immigration did right-wing terrorists did not want immigrants in their country and sought to drive them out with force. A 2014 paper argues that right-wing terrorism increases with economic growth, seemingly due to its proponents often being people who lose out under economic modernisation. wrote in a 2011 article that Right-Wing Extremist Crime (REC), which includes anti-foreigner and racist motivations, is associated with unemployment rates as unemployment rates increase, REC also increases. Because the targets of these attacks are often entire sections of communities, they are not targeted as individuals, instead, they are targeted because they are representatives of groups which are considered alien by them. The attacks which are perpetrated by right-wing terrorists are not indiscriminate attacks which are perpetrated by individuals and groups which simply seek to kill people the targets of these attacks are carefully chosen. Right-wing terrorists tend to target people who they consider members of alien communities, but they may also target political opponents, such as left-wing groups and individuals.
Although they often take inspiration from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany with some exceptions, right-wing terrorist groups frequently lack a rigid ideology. They believe that their actions will set in motion events that will ultimately lead to the creation of these authoritarian governments. Right-wing terrorists aim to overthrow governments and replace them with nationalist and/or fascist regimes. Modern right-wing terrorism largely emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s, and following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it emerged in Eastern Europe. Right-wing terrorism, hard right terrorism, extreme right terrorism or far-right terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies, most prominently by neo-Nazism, anti-communism, neo-fascism, ecofascism, ethnonationalism, religious nationalism, and anti-government patriot/ sovereign citizen beliefs and occasionally by anti-abortionism, tax resistance and homophobia.