Patrick Heller is an American sociologist and the director of the development research program at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
[1] Patrick Heller completed his bachelor's degree in Arts in Sociology and South Asian Studies (1985) from University of California, Santa Cruz.
He subsequently won Chancellor's Dissertation-Year Fellowship and John L. Simpson Scholarship, Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
He explores how democratic institutions and practices can promote more inclusive and more participatory forms of development, by focusing primarily on Brazil, India and South Africa.
His article "Deliberation and Development: Rethinking the Role of Voice and Collective Action in Unequal Societies" was published by World Bank and received substantial scholarly attention.
[5] He argues that legacies of egalitarianism, social rights and public trust in Kerala helped the state to encounter the economic and welfare consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic successfully.