Distinguishing the operations a system can enforce from the choices about how to use them. In a microkernel, a protected IPC operation can deliver requests while a user-space service decides which files a caller may read. The division is a design choice: every real mechanism still has rules and limits.
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The separation of mechanism and policy is a conceptual framework often discussed in the context of governance, organizational management, and systems design. It refers to the idea that the processes and tools used to implement decisions (mechanisms) should be distinct from the decisions themselves (policies).