Ward Berenschot is a professor of comparative political anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and a senior researcher at KITLV. Studying politics in India and Indonesia, his research focuses on the role of money and informality in election campaigns, while a second field of research concerns the character of civil society and citizenship in these countries. He has also been involved in efforts to promote legal aid in Indonesia, particularly in relation to land conflicts sparked by palm oil expansion. On this topic he helped produce the Watchdoc documentary ‘Colonial Debris’. 

Berenschot studied political science at the University of Amsterdam, where he also obtained his PhD cum laude with a dissertation on Hindu-Muslim violence in India. He is the author of Riot Politics: Hindu-Muslim Violence and the Indian State (Hurst/Columbia University Press, 2011) and Democracy for Sale: Elections, Clientelism and the State in Indonesia (Cornell University Press, 2019) as well as various articles on clientelism, governance, land conflicts, citizenship and political violence. At KITLV, Berenschot has coordinated a KNAW funded research program on Citizenship in Indonesia, as well as an NWO funded program on Clientelism and Election Campaigns in Indonesia. 

His current research focuses on three main topics: land conflicts, campaign finance, and public opinion manipulation through social media. He is coordinating an NWO funded research project on campaign finance in India and Indonesia, which studies causes and consequences of the high costs of election campaigns. He coordinates a research collaboration (with Wageningen University and Universitas Andalas) that studies the activism of rural Indonesians against palm oil companies. With researchers at the University of Amsterdam and Universitas Diponegoro Berenschot also works on a research project that studies how online ‘buzzers’ are used to manipulate public opinion in Indonesia. He teaches courses on political economy and historical comparative sociology at Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam. 

Selected Publications

Berenschot, Ward & Edward Aspinall, Democracy for sale: Elections, clientelism and the state in Indonesia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2019. (See reviews in New York Review of Books and Asian Studies Review).  

Berenschot, Ward, Wijayanto, Yatun Sastramidjaya, and Kris Ruijgrok, ‘The infrastructure of social media influence operations: Cyber troops and public opinion manipulation in Indonesia’, The International Journal of Press/Politics, in press. 

Berenschot, Ward, Ahmad Dhiaulhaq, Otto Hospes, and Daniel Pranajaya, ‘Corporate contentious politics: Palm oil companies and land conflicts in Indonesia’, Political Geography 114, October 2024. 

Berenschot, Ward, Ahmad Dhiaulhaq, Afrizal, and Otto Hospes, Kehampaan hak: Masyarakat vs perusahaan sawit di Indonesia. Jakarta: Obor, 2023. 

Berenschot, Ward & Ahmad Dhiaulhaq, ‘The production of rightlessness: Palm oil companies and land dispossession in Indonesia’, Globalizations, pp. 1–19, 2023. 

Berenschot, Ward, Ahmad Dhiaulhaq, Afrizal, Otto Hospes, Poetry Erysa, and Adriana Rebekha,  ‘Anti-corporate activism and collusion: The contentious politics of palm oil expansion in Indonesia’, Geoforum 131, pp. 39–49, 2022.  

Berenschot, Ward, Adrianus Hendrawan and Edward Aspinall, ‘Parties as pay-off seekers: Pre-electoral coalitions in a patronage democracy’, Electoral Studies  69, 2021.  

Berenschot, Ward, Widge Capri & D. Devy Dhian, ‘A quiet revolution? Village head elections and the democratization of rural Indonesia’, Critical Asian Studies 53-1, pp. 126–146, 2021.  

Berenschot, Ward, Edward Aspinall, ‘How clientelism varies: Comparing patronage democracies’, Democratization 27-1, pp.1–19, 2020.  

Berenschot, Ward, ‘Patterned pogroms: Patronage networks as infrastructure for electoral violence in India and Indonesia’, Journal of Peace Research 57-1, pp.171–184, 2020.  

Berenschot, Ward, Peter Mulder, ‘Explaining regional variation in local governance: Clientelism and state-dependency in Indonesia’, World Development 122, pp. 233-44, 2019.  

Berenschot, Ward, ‘The political economy of clientelism: A comparative study of Indonesia’s patronage democracy’, Comparative Political Studies 51-12, pp.1563-93, 2018.  

Berenschot, Ward, Gerry van Klinken, ‘Informality and citizenship: The everyday state in Indonesia’, Journal of Citizenship Studies, 22-2, 2018.  

Berenschot, Ward, Riot politics: India’s Hindu-Muslim violence and the Indian state.  London: Hurst/Colombia University Press, 2011.
(See reviews in  New Republic, Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Commonwealth and Comparative Politics)