Background
Professor William Heller specializes in the effects of legislative and constitutional institutions, focusing in particular on how decision-making structures and processes affect politicians' ability and willingness to influence policy making in advanced industrialized parliamentary systems. He also has an abiding interest in the policy-making effects of such constitutional structures as bicameralism and federalism. Professor Heller's current research focuses primarily on how parties adapt to legislative institutions. In recent work, he has examined party switching by sitting legislators, government agenda setting in Italy, and the possibility of achieving cooperation in large groups of selfish actors. He has published articles on comparative politics and formal theory in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, the Annual Review of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, and the Journal of Politics. Professor Heller teaches courses on comparative politics and institutional analysis. He joined the faculty at Binghamton in 2002.
Education
- BA, Harvard University
- PhD, University of California at San Diego
Research Interests
- Comparative politics
- political parties
- game theory