Motive and Opportunity for Right-Wing Terror and Violence: A Structured, Focused Comparison of Sweden and Denmark 1990-2015

Abstract: Why is Sweden plagued the most of right-wing terror and violence in comparison to its Nordic neighbors? This thesis explores the possible motive and opportunity for right-wing terror and violence between 1990 and 2015, by using new empirical data provided from the Center for Research and Extremism (C-REX). The cases of Sweden and Denmark are scrutinized through the lens of their respective economic opportunity structure in a focused comparison. The idea for explanation is that if immigration increases and the economy declines, a window for linking influx of immigrants to the financial context for political actors arises. This creates an opening for the immigration influx to become a salient issue. As a result of this, we should expect right-wing terror and violence to occur. This idea is both developed and tested for its strength in this paper. The finding is that there are profound differences between Sweden and Denmark’s political organizations when researching relevant parties’ manifestos. Furthermore, this paper finds that when accentuation for immigration as a salient issue begins to appear by plenty in a political context, right-wing terror and violence seems to decline.