AIM Framework glossary
Mechanism Test
Canonical definition
The second limb of the Three-Test Battery, carrying two requirements rather than one. Tractability: the mechanism connecting the Individuals' conduct to the harm must be specifiable concretely, so that armed guards at the entrance qualifies and a claim that they somehow make resources scarce does not. Exclusivity: the mechanism must be uniquely attributable to the accused, so that sole control of the guards qualifies and participation in the same market as everyone else does not. Exclusivity is the limb that does most of the work, because a mechanism available to everyone in a system identifies no Individual within it, which is the structural signature of a deficit whose causes are diffuse.
Explanation
The second test asks two things and both must hold. Can you say exactly how they are doing it, in terms someone could check? And is it something only they can do? A mechanism everybody has access to picks out nobody, which is the usual position when the real cause is spread across a whole system rather than sitting in one pair of hands.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.