Congratulations, Dr. Fjørtoft!

Trym Nohr Fjørtoft has successfully defended his PhD thesis Borders of Technocracy. Expertise, democracy, and the legitimacy of unelected bodies.

Trym Nohr Fjørtoft (third from the left) with supervisors Erik Oddvar Eriksen and Asimina Michailidou and his adjudication committee Jens Steffek, Regine Paul and Jens Jungblut.

During his public defence on 7 October 2022, Trym Nohr Fjørtoft was examined by Professor Jens Steffek from TU Damstadt and Professor Regine Paul from University of Bergen of his adjudication committee.

In his thesis, Fjørtoft asks under which conditions the delegation of power to unelected bodies is democratically legitimate.

He has focused his research on European Union agencies, and a case study of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex.

In four articles, Fjørtoft aims to delineate the boundaries of technical legitimacy. He cautions against too much faith in technical legitimacy, but also disagrees that technical legitimacy is never appropriate.

The dissertation argues against a one-size-fits-all approach to legitimacy: Every institution must not satisfy everything that democracy demands, but the system as a whole must.

For more about Fjørtoft’s research, please see the scientific abstract of his PhD thesis or his list of published articles.

Congratulations, Dr. Fjørtoft!